Lockdown lessons on learning outcomes

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TIMES NEWS NETWORK

10.01.2022

Chennai: The school education department will impart training based on learning outcomes to teachers between January 10 and February 25.

The training will take place during the closure of schools for Classes I to IX owing to a spike in Covid-19 cases. The program will be organized in hi-tech labs in government high schools at block level.

“The State Council for Educational Research and Training (SCERT) has defined learning outcomes for each lesson. To clarify doubts on learning outcomes and to make sure each student achieve those learning goals, further training is needed,” a circular from the school education department said.

Teacher associations, however, opposed a move to conduct training for more than 100 teaches at a location when the Covid-19 cases are set to reach the peak in the coming weeks.

“When Covid-19is spreading fast, asking teachers to assemble at block-level in one place may result in spread of Covid-19 infection.

It isn't possible to ensure social distancing within the hi-tech labs. Hence, the training program needs to be conducted after the Covid-19 cases subside,” said P KIlamaran, president of Tamil Nadu Teachers Association.

 

Confusion over Pongal special buses next Sunday

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TIMES NEWS NETWORK

10.01.2022

Chennai: With no clarity yet on whether there will be a lockdown next Sunday (January 16), those who had booked tickets in Pongal special buses for return journey to Chennai have started to either cancel or reschedule their trips.

The TNSTC had announced that over 2,300 buses would be operated next Sunday from different parts of the state to Chennai and began online ticket booking three weeks ago on government website http:// www. tnstc. in/ as well as through private sites like RedBus, PayTM, and Abhibus. Over 25 per cent of the seats were reserved by last Thursday, according to official data. It was against this background that the state government announced that January 9 (Sunday) will be a complete lockdown. No government bus was allowed to ferry passengers on Sunday.

"We have put the online ticket reservation on hold as none knows whether there will be a lockdown next Sunday," said a senior transport official, seeking anonymity. Those who had planned to return to Chennai next Sunday in private buses are also in a fix. “The government has to announce its decision soon, not wait till Thursday evening again,” said D Deepak, who cancelled his January 16 ticket from Nagercoil to Chennai in a private A/C sleeper bus. "We had booked tickets in advance to avoid crowd and last minute confusion. It, however, looks like our return trips are going to be chaotic," he added.

Meanwhile, the Southern Railway, which has not cancelled any of its express trains, is expected to operate all long-distance trains to Chennai as per schedule. In Pongal special trains, only tatkal tickets are available .

 

ALL-INDIA TPR AT 4%

7 states in red with high fortnightly TPR

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Pradeep.Thakur@timesgroup.com

10.01.2022

New Delhi: The third wave of Covid may be here but not all states need to worry yet. Fortnightly Covid positivity rates or total confirmed cases per 100 tests measured over a 14day period (December 26-January 8) have gone up to 17% in West Bengal, Maharashtra, Goa, Mizoram, Punjab, Kerala and Delhi, but the situation in other parts of the country has not taken such a serious tur n.

The situation may be alarming in West Bengal where the pandemic has rapidly spread in thelast fortnight with the positivity rate going beyond 17%, much above the World Health Organisation’s red line of 5%,which acted as a threshold during the second wave, breaching which a state must set up containment zones under strict lockdown. At present, Tamil Nadu’s TPR stands at 8. 7%.

Significantly, each of these states, except Mizoram and Kerala, had positivity rates ho- vering around 1% in the previousfortnight (December 13-26). A TOI study found that while most other states and Union territories too witnessed a rapid increase in cases in the last two weeks, manyarestill out of danger and away from the WHO’s red line for the second wave.

All-India positivity rate over last fortnight has been around 4%

Unlike Delta variant which caused the second wave, Omicron has turned out to be less lethal, with the overwhelming majority of the infected not requiring hospitalisation.

The situation in the five poll bound states is a mixed one. While Goa (15%) and Punjab (6%) seem to be in need of immediate and stringent containment measures, the others are yet to reach that stage with positivity rates remaining below 2%, the lowest being in UP at less than 1%. Uttarakhand and Manipur have around 2%.

The all-India positivity rate over the last fortnight has been around 4%, though it is a massive spike from 0.5% in the previous 14-day period. Situations in many other states are quite similar with at least seven of them — Jharkhand, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat and Rajasthan — having positivity rates of around 3-4% during the fortnight ending January 8.

A high positivity rate is indicative of a state testing only the sickest and lacking in tracking and treatment measures. One reason why positivity rate has not flared up yet could also be because of the larger vaccination coverage with country last weak reaching the milestone of 150 crore doses.

Bihar, Odisha, Telangana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Assam and J&K all have kept the positivity rate lower than 2%, so far.

During the peak of the second wave in April-May, Goa had the highest fortnightly positivity rate of 43%, followed by Karnataka 32%, West Bengal 30%, Kerala 27%, Uttarakhand 23% and 22% each in Himachal Pradesh, Andhra, Chandigarh and Rajasthan.

As on Sunday, the highest number of active Covid cases are in Maharashtra (1.7 lakh), West Bengal (62,055) and Delhi (48,178). Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala each have between 30,000 to 40,000 active cases while Gujarat and Jharkhand have over 21,000 cases each, UP has 18,551 cases and Rajasthan 14,000.

13k new cases push TN active caseload to 50k

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10.01.2022

Chennai accounted for about half of Tamil Nadu’s 12,895 new Covid cases while active cases in the state breached the 50,000-mark. Chennai district’s test positivity rate (TPR) jumped to 16. 6%, almost double the state’s average figure. Chengalpet (14%) and Tiruvallur (12. 5%) too registered high TPR. Health minister Ma Subramaniam said TN’s average Covid bed occupancy rate was around 7% and urged public to follow Covid rules and not panic. Meanwhile, a prediction by IIT Madras put the peak of the third wave between February1and15.

NEET-PG counselling to start on Wednesday

 NEET-PG counselling to start on Wednesday

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TIMES NEWS NETWORK

10.01.2022

New Delhi: NEET-PG counselling will start on Wednesday (January 12), the Union government has said.

The decision comes after the Supreme Court on January 7 passed an interim order, allowing resumption of medical counselling for NEET-PG admissions for the year 2021-22. The SC also upheld the validity of 27% OBC and 10% EWS quotas.

“As assured by the ministry of health to the resident doctors, following the order of the Supreme Court, the NEET-PG counselling is being started by the Medical Counselling Committee from January 12, 2022. This will give more strength to the country in the fight against Corona. My best wishes to all the candidates,” health minister Mansukh Mandaviya said in a tweet in Hindi. The exam was held on September 11, 2021, after being rescheduled twice.

Resident doctors of various medical colleges across the country last month held protests and boycotted work demanding that the counselling process be expedited.

Admissions begin in Med colleges Seat Charts To Be Released On Jan 10

 

Admissions begin in Med colleges

Seat Charts To Be Released On Jan 10

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TIMES NEWS NETWORK

09.01.2022

Bhopal: 13 medical colleges across the state are conducting counselling for admissions to PG courses. Earlier NEET-PG counselling based on existing OBC, EWS quota was cleared by the Supreme Court. On these lines, UG counselling will also be conducted. Seat charts are expected to be released on January10. 

Through MP NEET PG, registration for counselling will be till Jan 11. Directorate of Medical Education in MP has started preparations for counseling. Schedule has been uploaded on the web portal of the DME. Process of registration will continue till January11. It includes 6 government medical colleges and 7 private medical colleges. JUDA doctors have expressed a sigh of relief as there were nationwide protests to start counselling.

 

CAN TAP FOREIGN FUNDS

Govt restores FCRA licence as MoC rectifies violations

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Bharti Jain & SubhroNiyogi TNN

09.01.2022

New Delhi/Kolkata: The Union home ministry has restored the registration of Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity (MoC) under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010, after the charity rectified the accounts-related violations that had been flagged while rejecting its application for renewal of the licence to receive funds from abroad. The Kolkata-based NGO also informed the ministry that it had terminated the services of a staffer accused of child trafficking in Jharkhand.

The MHA’s move reopens the option of foreign funding for MoC, besides enabling it to utilise the money already lying in its FCRA account. “The power of love and service has won. We thank God for touching the hearts of the authorities and showing them thetruth. We thank the authorities for seeing the truth. Our beloved saint, Mother Teresa of Calcutta, continues to guide and lead her congregation in serving the poorest of the poor,” Catholic Association of Bengal president Angelina Mantosh Jasnani said.

Sources told TOI that soon after its licence-renew-al plea was rejected by the MHA on December 25 on grounds of “adverse inputs”, MoC functionaries met ministry officials to clarify that they had rectified the FCRA violations for which legal notices had been served. These included violations for which the charity had paid penalties, an officer said. The violations mainly pertained to transfer of FCRA funds between various accounts, besides purchase of a vehicle.

Another adverse input against MoC was related to the child trafficking case registered in Jharkhand, naming an office-bearer of the charity as one of the accused. The organisation informed the MHA through an affidavit that the staffer had been sacked. It disowned two other accused in the case, saying they were not its office-bearers. Proceedings in the case are underway.