Sanskrit lessons for Jaipur MP Ramchanran Bohra and his family during lockdown - education

It’s purnima (day of full moon) of Jyeshtha Hindu month on Friday and Ramchanran Bohra has completed 65 days of Sanskrit classes at his Jaipur house.

The Member of Parliament from Jaipur began learning Sanskrit when Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced nationwide lockdown to prevent spread of coronavirus disease on March 24.

Since then, Bohra and his family – wife Lalita, sons Rahul and Akshay, daughters-in-law Rati and Sneha, and grandchildren Aparark and Saanvi – have been sitting around Shastri Kosalendradas for two hours every evening to get basic knowledge about Vedic literature and learning the basics of Sanskrit.

“I got attracted to Sanskrit after getting in contact with Kosalendradas ji. The language brings sanskaras (rites) in a family so I decided to utilize the lockdown period to initiate my family to this ancient language,” said Bohra, who took oath in Sanskrit in both tenures as Lok Sabha MP.

Bohra said he called family friend Kosalendradas on March 24 to request him to spare sometime every day to teach his family Sanskrit and introduce them to Vedic culture. “I have given them basic knowledge about Sanskrit, epics Ramayana and Mahabharat, and Panini’s Ashtadhyayi (the treatise on Sanskrit grammar),” said Kosalendradas, assistant professor at Jagadguru Ramanandacharya Rajasthan Sanskrit University (JRRSU) in Jaipur.

In two months, even the youngest member of the Bohra family – 5-year-old Aparark – has started reciting shlokas from Bhagwat and Vishnu Puranas. “The common perception is that Sanskrit is very difficult but we now know that it’s just a perception. In two months only, we have learnt so much,” said Bohra, 64.

His two sons, Rahul and Akshay, are MBAs; the elder daughter-in-law Rati is a dentist and the other one, Sneha, is lecturer of mathematics. All of them can recite mantras and sholakas. “We have all gone to English-medium schools and never thought Sanskrit could be so easy to learn,” said Akshay, the younger son of the Jaipur MP.

Kosalendradas says the family is learning Abhijnanashakuntalam, written by great Sanskrit poet Kalidas, these days. He said the classes will continue at least until end of June.

The classes are not held on pratipada, the first day of every fortnight in Hindu months, and amavasya, night of no moon.

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Online test for non-gazetted posts will ease difficulties faced by aspirants: Jitendra Singh - education

The online Common Eligibility Test (CET) for recruitment to non-gazetted posts will ease the difficulties faced by aspirants for government jobs, particularly those from poor and unprivileged sections, Union minister Jitendra Singh said on Friday.

Releasing a digital book titled ‘Aarambh’ and highlighting the achievements of the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), he said even during the coronavirus pandemic this department set new standards of functioning, which were not only widely hailed but also emulated.

For example, the DoPT’s iGOT (Integrated Government Online Training Programme) incorporated an exclusive course on coronavirus awareness and COVID-19 warriors’ training for which within a few weeks over 23 lakh officers registered themselves, the minister said.

One of the most important initiatives this year was the exercise to set up the National Recruitment Agency (NRA), which will conduct computer-based online Common Eligibility Test (CET) for recruitment to non-gazetted posts with examination centres in every district, Singh said. This, he said, will ease the difficulties faced by aspirants for government jobs, particularly those from poor and unprivileged sections.

The minister said, true to the title of ‘Aarambh’, the year 2019-20 was marked with a number of new beginnings, the most important of which was the first ever experiment of interaction with Prime Minister Narendra Modi by 425 trainee officers from 21 civil services at the Statue of Unity portraying Sardar Patel at Kevadia, Gujarat.

These officers were part of the common foundation course of 21 service and were selected through the Civil Services Examination, said the Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions.

The agencies working under the aegis of the DoPT like, for instance, Kendriya Bhandar promptly came out to provide essential supplies of personal protective equipment (PPE) kits, sanitiser and other items in the early days of the pandemic when there were some reports of initial shortage of these items in certain parts of the country, he said, highlighting the DoPT’s achievements.

Among those who attended the launch of the e-book were DoPT Secretary C Chandramouli and Additional Secretary Rashmi Choudhary, while the other officers connected through video conference.

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Classroom learning will change post COVID-19 lockdown, says HRD Secretary - education

When schools reopen, the way classroom learning used to happen so far is going to change, HRD School Education Secretary Anita Karwal said on Friday asserting that the COVID-19 pandemic has put the focus on quality of digital education which was postponed so far.

Noting that more than 24 crore children in the country are going to be affected, Karwal both teachers and students will have to adjust a lot in the post lockdown world.

“We are aware that whenever schools reopen there has to be maintenance of social distancing and a lot of precautions need to be taken,” Karwal, said at a virtual conference on ‘Future of Schools: Overcoming the COVID-19 challenge and beyond’ organised by Ashoka University.

“The way learning happens in classrooms is going to change and there will be a lot of adjustments which teachers and students need to make. These adjustments are something which we cannot guarantee that it will happen in few days, it may take more time for few children and less time for others. This is the context in which we are functioning,” she added.

Karwal, who was the Chairman of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) when the COVID-19 lockdown was announced in the March, said, “The first thing that we wanted to ensure was the mental well-being of students followed by continuity of education be it online or offline”.

“When we began with the thrust on e-learning, the focus was more on access to e-learning. Technology without equity will not lead to effective learning in all our children,” she said.

“Another area of importance is the quality of digital education which we had postponed before the pandemic happened. We realised that whatever we put in the digital education universe, it has to be of the highest quality — something which is engaging, interacting and able to communicate with the stakeholders,” she said.

Talking about the roadmap for reopening of schools, Karwal said, “We are now trying to realign the whole learning process, the pedagogy, the instructional process, the way children will be called to schools. What happens at the entry and exit points at the school, what are the changed roles of teachers…we are working on all this”.

“Firstly, we directed states to provided textbooks to children at their homes right away. Some states mentioned to us that printing is not allowed, transportation is not available, so we intervened on their behalf and requested MHA for permissions. Now almost all states have been able to send it (books) to children or are in process of doing so,” she said.

“We came up with an alternative calendar mapping it with learning outcomes. We have also detailed in the calendar the steps if the student doesn’t have access to e-learning resources,” she added.

While the Class 12 exams will be conducted across the country, the Class 10 exams are only pending in North East Delhi. The exams could not be conducted in the national capital’s district due to the law and order situation in the wake of protests against the amended citizenship law. Universities and schools across the country have been closed since March 16, when the Centre announced a countrywide classroom shutdown as part of a slew of measures to contain the COVID-19 outbreak.

A 21-day nationwide lockdown was announced on March 24, which came into effect the next day.

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COVID-19: Jamia Millia Islamia to open its offices with 50 per cent staff - education

In view of the COVID-19 outbreak, the Jamia Millia Islamia has said its offices would be opened with 50 per cent staff and asked employees above 60 years to work from home. In an office order issued on Thursday, the varsity said employees who reside in the containment zones will work from home until their area is removed from the category by the government. “No outside visitors will be allowed in any administrative building/other offices until further orders. The heads of the department/offices shall also identify and establish a central registry for receiving and dispatching Dak,” the varsity said.

All offices of the university are to be opened with 50 per cent staff from 9 am to 5.30 pm on all working days, the order said, adding the rotation of employees by 50 per cent will be decided by their respective Heads of the Department.  “It is advised that employees who are above 60 years of age may work from home,” the varsity said.

All non-teaching staff of the university above the rank of section officers shall attend the offices on regular basis, it said.  The teachers are also required to attend the department for official work as per assignment given by the HoDS, including their research work, the varsity said.  The varsity also asked all the HoDs to ensure social distancing and wearing of mask.

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Pandemic effect: Undecided on exams, new session, Bihar varsities await guidelines - education

The universities in Bihar, always struggling with delayed academic sessions, are still undecided on how they would conduct their examinations in the midst of COVID-19 pandemic and are awaiting guidelines from the Chancellor office.

Due to demographic profile of students in Bihar, with majority being from the rural areas with limited facilities and poor internet connectivity which came as a big hindrance during attempts to dabble in online classes, the universities are skeptical about online examinations option.

Governor-cum-Chancellor of universities Phagu Chouhan has called a meeting with vice chancellors through video conferencing starting next week to discuss progress on National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) and other reforms and preparedness of universities in the light of new challenges. The VC would be conducted with three universities at a time.

Patna University acting vice chancellor HN Prasad, who is also the VC of Nalanda Open University, said that efforts were underway to work out a tentative plan for examinations in July, but it would be a challenge. Normally, the session in PU starts from July 1. It has been the only university with timely academic session.

He said that organizing examination online was not looking feasible due to lack of infrastructure and practical problems. “But the examinations have to be held, may be in the traditional way, but everything will depend on the COVID-19 situation. University Grants Commission has also given guidelines regarding examinations,” he added.

PU also has to organize the entrance test for admissions in its degree courses. Last year also, it was delayed due to confusion over the implementation of the new reservation roster and 10% quota to the students from the economically weaker section (EWS) in colleges and universities.

Munger University VC RK Verma said that examination was a priority, as the university had struggled to bring back the session on track last year. “This year, we had announced exams from March 24, but after that everything stopped. Now, the challenge is to get the colleges in shape before planning any exam, as most of them were used as quarantine centres. They need thorough sanization, else they will become source of infection,” he added.

Verma said that the contaminants could pose serious health hazard even after the migrants leave. “We cannot change the exam system, as it is governed by ordinance and statutes, but we will have to take due precaution, which will involve creating more exam centres to ensure proper social distancing,” he added.

Disaster management department principal Secretary Pratyaya Amrit said that after June 15, all the government building and schools and colleges requisitioned for quarantine centres would be thoroughly sanitized as per the standard protocol before handing them over to the concerned authorities. “All DMs will soon be issued instruction in this regard. The health department has issued detailed guidelines in this regard,” he added.

Most of the universities have been beset with late academic sessions in Bihar and the disruption due to COVID-19 is set to further derail the attempts to streamline it. Chancellor’s office has also been consistently underlining the need for regularizing academic sessions, but it is mostly delayed, except in PU.

The students’ wing of the BJP, Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad has also written to the PU VC to work out an arrangement of constant evaluation for promoting students in the light of the regulation of the ministry of Human resource development. It has also urged the VC for fee waiver for six months, as the institutions a been closed.

“The online courses being run online are a mere eyewash, as it is not reaching students living in far off places due to poor connectivity and lack of facilities. There should be an arrangement to upload e-content and video lectures on the university website for the convenience of the students. The university should also clear the mist on PUCET and whether it would be online and offline,” said the ABVP letter.

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Online examinations are here to stay - education

A wise man said that necessity is the mother of invention. Though this cannot be applied to the subject of Online Examinations, the spirit of these wise words could be borrowed to understand why the Indian Education System is exploring Online Examinations. Our country relies on summative assessments for progression in our education system. The summative assessments are in the form of end term examinations. This is more applicable in our higher education system and to some extent in the school education system.

The unprecedented lockdown due to Covid-19 has taken away the wind from the sails of the conventional education system. Students and faculty are confined in their homes and as a result, paper and pen exams in a traditional examination hall are no more feasible. The uncertainty associated with the tenure of such a lockdown and delayed exams is threatening to delay the progress of millions of students enrolled in our higher education system. The direct impact of this delay is on the student, but the indirect impact is much larger, as it disrupts the well-oiled supply chain of qualified human resources that are required to fuel the growth of our economy.

It is quite paradoxical to note that many competitive examinations of international repute like GRE and GMAT have gone online and from home, but our higher education system finds it difficult to adopt, when the same is applied to the examinations conducted by majority of schools and colleges in India. We do understand the reasons for uneasiness because the present situation is complex and demands that the online exams be administered in a manner that can be taken by the students from their home. So, let us look at the some of the reasons for this uneasiness:

1. Can an online exam be synchronous? In other words, can the entire cohort of students take the exams as per the examination schedule?

2. How does one proctor such an examination, where students are dispersed geographically and appearing for exams from home?

3. How can the invigilator address the issue of unfair means like the use of books, access to the Internet, mobile connectivity and prompting by a friend from the

background when exams are being conducted online?

4. What happens if there is a power blackout or the connectivity to the internet is lost?

5. The most important concern is, are online assessments as rigorous as paper and pen exams?

6. Last but not the least, the aversion to adoption of technology both by faculty and students, that is, to come out of the comfort zone.

Besides these direct concerns, the ubiquity of computer accessibility and availability of Internet connectivity is another major concern. The above concerns are real and can generate interesting arguments during a debate. However, these concerns are myths that can be shattered, if one delves into the features provided by various technology platforms designed to deliver online examinations that can be taken from anywhere.

Today, most of the technology platforms are cloud based and can be accessed from anywhere anytime. Thus, organizing a synchronous event to conduct examination across

students dispersed geographically is probably the easiest problem to handle. Most computer devices and tabs are equipped with web camera, or we may call them the eyes of the computer which when powered by some powerful AI enabled software can do magic.

Thus, when a student is appearing for an examination from home, the student is “eye locked”. What this means is, that the camera is used to detect any abnormal action such as picking up a mobile phone, periodically looking at one location, noticing any kind of assistance being received from another person etc. Such features ensure that the human proctor observing the student sitting miles away behind the proctoring terminal does not miss such anomalies and can immediately address the suspected action. If the investigation does reveal malpractice the human proctor can initiate on- the- spot action just like that of a conventional exam hall. The combined power of AI proctoring enabled by the camera and the microphone on the student’s computer, coupled with invigilation by a human proctor, provides for a robust proctoring mechanics, may even be beating the conventional proctoring in a traditional examination hall.

Power blackouts and connectivity failures are realities that one cannot ignore. However, the risks associated with the same are easily mitigated by configuring such exams to maintain the last state of the machine and resume the exam when power or connectivity is restored.

The examination host can configure multiple parameters to define the period of the blackout beyond which the examination could be cancelled, and a make-up examination could be conducted.

All online examination platforms can offer all question types which can be rendered on a paper pen exam. Such platforms can also provide assessment which would require the students to solve a real-life problem such as writing a piece of code and/or building a data analytics model. These flexibilities make the examination platforms more versatile in terms of delivering a rigorous exam. The level of the rigor is completely determined by the assessor.

Technology platforms that enable online examinations in our country also provide services to assist institutions for delivering online examinations. The role of the faculty continues to be limited to providing the question paper and evaluation of the answer scripts. Technology platforms do permit faculty to correct answer sheets online and also have the option of providing them printed versions to suit their comfort and convenience. This is a classic example of leveraging IT Enabled services for an important function such as examinations without impacting the nature of work of the faculty. Thus, the perception, that online exams is about technology readiness, needs to be changed to eradicate the attitude of aversion across stakeholders: administrators, faculty, and students.

In the post Covid-19 era, social distancing is going to be the new normal. We may lose the convenience of organizing exams in halls that can accommodate many students. The availability of examination halls may become a scarcity in the coming days and to overcome this, administrators may increase the frequency for examinations. However online examinations can easily reduce the burden by keeping students who have access to computer and internet at home and the rest could write the exams conventionally. Online examination is emerging as a possible solution to address the concerns around social distancing.

Having addressed the primary concerns, it will only be fair to look at the advantages that Online Examination can offer. Some of the key advantages are mentioned below:

1. Differential paper setting can be done with ease. One has to choose the right algorithm amongst many offered by online examination platforms to determine the

question paper to be rendered to various students. Thus, online exams can mitigate the risk of paper leakage substantially.

2. Automatic correction of multiple-choice questions and some other types of questions can reduce the burden of evaluations considerably and can eliminate the

occurrence of errors in evaluations. Not to forget that the evaluation of such questions can happen on real time. The subjective answers can be routed to

authorized assessor in a blind manner further mitigating the risks associated with malpractices that need extra vigilance and resources in conventional exams.

3. Preventing impersonification, in other words ensuring that the paper is answered by the registered candidate and not anyone else is also well addressed by technology. Applying two/three factor authentication, the same mechanics used in online banking if applied to examinations can eradicate the proxy writing practice from the country.

4. The online examination system also offers multiple solutions to help differently abled persons to write examinations along with the peer group in the batch.

Questions could be read out by the machine and answers can be captured by voice files to assist such persons. The technology can replace the need for a proxy writer

or reader for such persons, making it more convenient for such persons to appear in examinations.

5. Last but the most significant, saving of paper, resources spent on transporting and logistics for delivering exams the conventional way and the subsequent resources spent for assessing the answer sheets would definitely add to the convenience of higher education institutions. Not to forget the reduced time in delivering examinations and its associated logistics can reduce the stress on the students and help the institutions in declaring the results on time.

A democracy like India, which is the largest, has been able to pull off elections through e-voting. India, which is considered the back office of the world for Information Technology, should be least concerned about the challenges and should lap up the advantage of online examination to make our examination system agile, reliable, efficient and most importantly stress free for the students.

Online examinations should be adopted and propagated across educational institutions for delivering exams in the future to give shape to our dream of a truly digital India.

The authors are Sanjay Padode – Founder of IFIM Business School , Chairman, CDE and Dr Atish Chattopadhyay – Director of IFIM Business School. Views expressed are personal.

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UPSC EPFO EO, AO Recruitment 2020: Exam postponed till further notice, check details - education

Union Public Service Commission, or UPSC, on Friday, announced that the recruitment test for the post of EO/AO in EPFO stands deferred till further notice. The recruitment exam was scheduled to be conducted on October 4, 2020.

The online registration process for the examination began on January 31, 2020. UPSC is conducting the recruitment drive to fill 421 vacancies of Enforcement Officer/Accounts Officer, Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation, Ministry of Labour, and Employment. Out of which, 168 vacancies are for the unreserved category, 116 for OBC, 62 for SC, 42 for EWS, and 33 for ST.

“Recruitment Test (RT) and Interview carry weightage in the ratio of 75:25 for the candidates shortlisted based on Recruitment Test (RT) and qualify in the interview,” reads the official recruitment notice.

For more details, candidates are advised to read the official recruitment notification.

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