Punjab

New education minister

Sewa Singh Sekhwan assumed charge as the new education minister of Punjab on October 26 following a brief stint as public relations minister of the state government.  Immediately after being sworn in, Sekhwan announced that the transfer policy of the education department will be made more rational with a focus on posting teachers —especially unmarried and widowed teachers — in their home towns. Taking charge of his new ministry, Sekhwan added that laxity won’t be permitted in government schools and institutes, as they are the main source of education for students with lesser resources.

Sekhwan’s appointment was made after a cabinet reshuffle in which finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal’s  portfolio was alloted to Upinderjit Kaur and the education ministry to Sekhwan.  The minister also said that the state government is considering a proposal to pay additional allowance to teachers posted in border areas.

Rajasthan

Teacher recruitment drive

The state government has initiated the process of recruiting 50,000 teachers and filling 7,000 other posts in five departments at the panchayat level, Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot informed media personnel in Jaipur on October 26.

The state government will entrust implementation of programmes under  the ministries of primary education, agriculture, medical services and health, women and child development, and social justice and empowerment to Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs). “Bearing procedural delays in mind, we have decided to make temporary arrangements by offering retired personnel two years’ additional employment to ensure smooth transfer of power of the five departments to PRIs,” said Gehlot.

Uttar Pradesh

AMU spreads its wings

The second campus of Aligarh Muslim University,  (AMU, estb.1875) is set to become a reality, with Union human resource development (HRD) minister Kapil Sibal scheduled to lay the found-ation of AMU’s campus in Murshi-dabad, West Bengal on November 20. President Pratibha Patil, in her capacity as Visitor of the varsity, had recently given consent for establishment of two off-site campuses of AMU, in Murshidabad and Malapurram (Kerala).

The HRD ministry has sanctioned Rs.25 crore and Rs.10 crore for the West Bengal and Kerala campuses to meet preliminary start-up expenses. AMU vice chancellor Prof. P.K. Abdul Azis says that by 2020, these campuses will become fully operational with the poten-tial to become independent universities.

The new campuses are expected to boost development initiatives in these two educationally backward regions.  The state governments have responded enthusiastically with the West Bengal government alloting a 250-acre site for AMU’s Murshidabad campus.

Assam

CEE project to save  hoolock gibbons

In association with several NGOs and the Centre for Environment Education (CEE), the Union government is set to initiate a two-year project for conser-vation of the rare and endangered hoolock gibbon primates (monkeys) in north-east India. Titled the Hoolock Gibbon Conservation Awareness and Education Programme, the project will be implemented by the Delhi-based CEE in select hoolock gibbon habitats in Assam, Manipur, Mizoram, Meghalaya and Tripura.

The target area hosts 130 schools and eight field-based NGOs. Schools and children in these areas will be involved with the project. Eight clusters are envisaged under the project to spread awareness of the need to conserve hoolock gibbons.

Andhra Pradesh

Bogus colleges scam

A major financial scandal involving bogus educational institutions draining over Rs.380 crore from the Andhra Pradesh exchequer, has surfaced in Hyderabad.

The defalcation was discovered when a cabinet sub-committee examining reimbursement of tuition fee subsidies to poor and socially disadvantaged students became aware that 2,406 of the state’s 12,309 colleges had failed to register details of students enroled in academic years 2008-09 and 2009-10.  However they have been receiving reimbursement of fees foregone from socio-economically disadvantaged students. “We believe these colleges which failed to register online could be bogus,” state social welfare minister Pilli Subhash Chandra Bose said in a statement issued in Hyderabad on October 25.

Reliable sources within the state government estimate that Rs.380 crore could have been siphoned off as reimbursement of tuition fees of underprivileged students. The state government spends Rs.3,000 crore annually towards reimbursements for socio-economically disadvantaged stu-dents pursuing higher and professional education.

Meghalaya

ICFAI University status confusion

Students of icfai University, Meghalaya, have launched an indefinite boycott of classes and forthcoming examinations, pending an explanation on the legal status of the institute and non-fulfillment of quality, faculty and service assurances as promised in the prospectus. They complain that ICFAI Meghalaya University was declared an autonomous institution without infor-ming them. “At the time of admission we were told ICFAI University Megha-laya was an affiliate of ICFAI University Hyderabad. But after a few months, it became ICFAI University, Meghalaya. We were informed that it is no longer connected with Hyderabad and is completely autonomous,” says the students’ memorandum to the vice chancellor.

Assuring the students that their grievances would be looked into, vice chancellor Y.K. Bhushan said on October 26 that while ICFAI Hyderabad cannot award degrees to students, ICFAI Meghalaya is permitted to do so under the charter of ICFAI University, Megha-laya approved by the state government.  However it will also continue to receive support from the parent body, ICFAI University Hyderabad, said Bhushan.