(directorate of distance education)

Distance Education programme of the university has been closed down with immediate effect from 3.06.2005 by the Executive Council in compliance with the order of His Excellency and Governor of UP. communicated by the Principal Secretary to H.E. vide letter on. E. 3575/G.S. dated 3rd June, 2005. In this regard letters are also being sent to the various Distance Education Centres. The university will not be responsible for any transactions in this regard. All the registered students are hereby informed that they should collect the university fee sent through cheque in their name at their respective study centres.

In an effort to ensure hassle- free admission to National Institutes of Technology and centrally-funded Indian Institutes of Information Technology, the Central Counselling Board (CCB) has set up a countrywide network to provide on-line guidance to students. Sixteen counselling centres have been set up across the country which will all be connected to the National Informatics Centre headquarters in Delhi as also to the Central Counselling Board (CCB) Secretariat here, a CCB statement said on Monday. Eligible candidates will have to report to their state counseling centers for online campus counselling beginning on July one. The choices submitted by them will be periodically processed and the candidates will be able to see on-line the institutions where they can possibly get admission as per their ranks in AH India Engineering Entrance Examination, 2005. The counselling will continue till July 11.The availability of seats, profile of the institutions and full details of the counseling procedure will be available on As many as 47,650 students who have cleared the AIEEE have been declared eligible for central counselling.Of them, CCB will make allotment of around 9,000 engineering seats and 321 in architecture, the statement said.

News of CCB

Lady Sri Ram College under Delhi University started vocational courses for boys for die first time only this year, Miranda House, once a womens bastion, has already completed a session with men on its rolls. Last year, Miranda House, also of Delhi University, had opened its doors to the boys and six joined the theatre direction course. For the first time in the history of the college, boys had joined any such course shedding inhibition and they did not face any problem, said an administrative official of the college. Asked whether the college was going to open its regular courses to die boys, the official said, The management has not yet thought about it. The University Grants Commission (UGC) had sent a circular to some of die girls colleges under Delhi University to admit boys in the vocational courses such as theatre direction, web designing and office automation and tourism. These courses were open to the boys last year but because of late approval by the UGC and official paper work, the admission was held only in August. Due to lack of publicity there were very few enrolments, said Ms Poonam Bihari, overall coordinator of the courses in Miranda House. All these courses are self-financed and held in die afternoon to facilitate the college students to pursue diem after their regular course, said die college official. Each of these courses has 20 scats and this year there are more boy applicants than girls, sources said. The tourism course fees are Rs 35,000 while theatre direction and web designing is pegged at Rs 15,000 each. The theatre production course is run in collaboration with the famed National School of Drama (NSD) and classes arc taken by its faculty. The tourism course is run in collaboration with Birds Travel Agency.

News of DU

The whole national problem in Sri Lanka and the drop in the standards of university education on the island is the tragic result of monolingualism practised there after the switchover to the swabhasha medium of education, according to Professor K.N.O. Dharmadasa, Editor-in-Chief, Sinhala Encyclopaedia. The swabhasha policy entailed that Sinhalese students should study in the Sinhala medium and that Tamil students should study in the Tamil medium.Dr. Dharmadasa, former Professor of Sinhala, University of Peradeniya and a Fulbright Fellow, said that after the switch to swabhasha (in the 1950s and 60s), those who managed the educational policy of the island neglected education in the English medium. Generations of people arose in the 1970s, 80s, and early 90s who were monolingual. This is the worse part. We could have been at least bilingual, in Sinhala and Tamil. Thai also never happened, he said. Besides, the study of English was neglected. This was very shortsighted on the part of those who managed the educational policy at that time.

News of Srilanka Education

To take some pressure off school students, NCERT in its draft National Curriculum Framework has suggested that the Class X board exam be made optional for those who wish to continue school, and a single nodal agency be allowed to conduct entrance examinations. The draft framework, which when finalised will be the guide to school syllabi for the next five years, has made some important suggestions on busting exam stress that has become a major concern for students, parents and teachers. The draft framework has recommended that under no circumstances should Board or other kinds of exams be conducted at the level of Class five, eight or 11 either at block, district or state level. It has also specified that the Class X exam be made optional for those who wish to continue up to Class XL “Others may receive a certificate from the school,” the Draft framework has recommended. The school system should allow students to opt for different levels of attainment. They should be encouraged to overcome the present system of generalized classification into ‘pass7 and ‘fail’ categories, the draft said. This document has been put together by academics, experts in the field of art, culture and music who formed sub-groups to look into specific areas. It will soon be put before the Central Advisory Board of Education. Suggestions made here will be incorporated by the National Steering Committee to give a final shape to the National Curriculum Framework 2005.Elaborating on exam reforms, draft framework has talked about a single nodal agency to coordinate and conduct exams several times a year at centres located all over the country. This exam score can be utilized by all institutions for the purpose of admitting students. Changing typology of questions so reasoning and creative abilities replace rote learning has also been put on NCERT’s agenda.

News of NCERT