UP school teacher reportedly working in 25 schools simultaneously arrested - education

The Uttar Pradesh school teacher, reportedly working simultaneously in 25 schools and earning over Rs 1 crore as salary in 13 months, was arrested in Kasganj on Saturday, police said.

Anamika Shukla was arrested when she had gone to the office of Basic Shiksha Adhikari Anjali Agarwal to tender her resignation fearing arrest after her fraud was reported in the media.

The BSA called the police and got Shukla arrested.

“A notice was sent to Anamika Shukla after we found that the documents are listed for multiple postings. She came to our office to submit resignation. She was handed over to the police,” Agarwal said.

Police said Shukla told them she got the job on paying a bribe of Rs 1 lakh.

After the matter was reported, the state government ordered Additional Director, Basic Education, to probe the matter.

“Nothing has been confirmed so far. Name of a lady teacher has come to the fore… She is absconding now,” Director General, School Education, Vijay Karan Anand had said.

According to the reports, Shukla worked in over 25 schools and drew a total salary of over Rs 1 crore in 13 months.

There are allegations that she worked as a science teacher in Kastruba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya in Ambedkar Nagar, Baghpat, Aligarh, Saharanpur, Prayagraj and other places.

KGBV teachers are appointed on contract and get Rs 30,000 pay.

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UP 69,000 Basic Teachers Recruitment: Govt challenges single-bench order halting selection process - education

The Uttar Pradesh government has challenged a single-bench order staying the appointment process of 69,000 assistant basic teachers in the state.

The special appeal has been listed for June 9 before a division bench, comprising justices Pankaj Jaiswal and Dinesh Kumar Singh. It has been filed by the Examination Regularity Authority (ERA) on behalf of the state.

In its appeal, the ERA has said the single-judge bench order was unwarranted and illegal.

The bench of Justice Alok Mathur on June 3 had stayed the selection process, prima facie finding that certain questions and answers were ambiguous and wrong and, hence, it required fresh scrutiny by the UGC.

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Stop private tuition, or else leave jobs, Tripura govt warns school teachers - education

Terming the private tuitions done by the government school teachers as ‘objectionable’, the Tripura government warned them to stop private tuitions immediately or else, leave the job.

“Several notices were served earlier to restrain the private tuitions by the government teachers since 1996. Even the High Court ordered to ban private tuitions done by the government, its aided and private schools in 2015. We favour the High Court decision. We will not allow the government teachers to continue private tuition as it is objectionable and we will start conducting raid from June 08. If they desire to earn extra money, they can leave the government job and continue their private coaching,” Education Minister Ratan Lal Nath told the mediapersons on Saturday late evening.

As a measure against the widespread private tuitions, the High Court of Tripura banned private coaching by government and its aided schools along with private schools teachers in 2015.

The private schools teachers could do private tuitions only if they are ready to impart tuitions to students above 14 years of age and if they belong to other schools except their own schools as per High Court verdict.

The teachers could not impart coaching to students less than 14 years of age as it would violate Right to Education Act,the minister added.

The minister also said that some professional private tutors are continuing their tuitions without following social distancing norms. “We have specific information that there are teachers from government and it’s aided and private schools, doing private tuitions violating the High Court verdict. We have also learnt that there are some teachers who are not maintaining social distancing,” he said.

He later informed that the government released offers for 84 graduate teachers’ post and 75 for undergraduate teachers’ post in last April. Of them, 69 submitted their offers for graduate teachers’ post and 33 for the undergraduate teachers’ post so far.

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UP Assistant Teacher Recruitment 2020: Row erupts as candidate with upper caste surname tops in OBC category - education

A controversy erupted after the marksheet of a supposedly Other Backward Class (OBC) candidate, Archana Tewari, went viral on the social media for having secured the highest marks in the written test for recruitment of 69,000 assistant teachers in primary schools in the OBC category in the state. The row prompted the Uttar Pradesh Basic Shiksha Parishad to issue a clarification on Sunday.

The controversy arose as Tewari is usually reckoned as an upper caste surname but the candidate in question had filled in her application in the OBC category.

“Caste details are filled by candidates while applying for recruitment and the results are declared based on it. It is during counselling that the candidate has to prove his or her eligibility to claim the benefits of reservation,” said Anil Kumar, deputy secretary, Uttar Pradesh Basic Shiksha Parishad, Prayagraj.

The Allahabad high court had stayed the recruitment process of 69,000 assistant teachers on June 3, prima facie finding that certain questions and answers were ambiguous and wrong and, hence, it required fresh scrutiny by the UGC.

The stay order came on the first day of counselling during which candidates’ documents were to be verified.

Since then, the Uttar Pradesh government has challenged the single-bench stay order. The special appeal has been listed for June 9 before a division bench, comprising justice Pankaj Jaiswal and justice Dinesh Kumar Singh. It has been filed by the Examination Regularity Authority (ERA) on behalf of the state. In its appeal, the ERA has said the single-judge bench order was unwarranted and illegal.

For its part, the UP basic education department, Prayagraj has approached the cyber cell in Lucknow “to deal with fake information about the selection being spread on social messaging sites”.

An official said no comment on the woman’s caste can be made as it was inappropriate. Moreover, her documents indicated she belonged to the Gosai Samaj that was in the OBC category and members of Gosai community used a second name like Tewari and Mishra, an official said.

Irrespective of surname, if a candidate (in this case the woman) belongs to a reserved caste and proves it during the counselling where all the documents are verified, then he/she gets the benefit, or else her candidature is cancelled, an official said.

Kumar explained that the candidates who applied for 2019 examination filled in all the information in the form on their own. The candidates’ forms are verified during counselling only after the results are declared.

The documents submitted by the candidates are verified by the district selection committee at the district level. The committee cancels the application of a candidate, whose documents are not complete or are found to have discrepancies at the time of verification.

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Uttarakhand students to now get disaster management lessons at schools - education

Given the COVID-19 pandemic and approaching monsoons which lead to many disasters in the state, the Uttarakhand government has now decided that students will be taught disaster management in schools once a week.

Chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat while taking a review meeting of the disaster management department on Saturday gave the instructions. The chief minister instructed the officers to provide training to the youth, members of Gram Sabha so as to prepare themselves and learn how to handle such situations.

“It is necessary to make people aware of disaster management given the geographical conditions of Uttarakhand. It is important to train people for incidents of fire and how to tackle with emergency situations during the rainy season. For this, mock drills should also be conducted from time to time to meet the challenges of disaster,” said Rawat.

He further said that to make the training that is being given for disaster management more effective, experts in the field should be consulted.

“Those who are authorised by the experts to train teachers across schools should start the training work for disaster management. The visual communication system should be strengthened further. Sensitive places should be identified from the point of view of disaster before monsoon sets in. Along with this, efforts should be made to minimize disaster response time and awareness campaigns informing people about the spread of Covid-19 should continue,” said Rawat.

In the meeting, officials from the Uttarakhand State Disaster Management Authority apprised the chief minister that work was underway for installing Doppler radar in Mukteshwar and Surkanda which will give accurate information related to the weather. To strengthen the communication system, 184 satellite phones have been provided at the tehsil level across the state.

Since 2012, 699 families in 27 disaster-hit villages have been rehabilitated. Along with this, 84 earthquake early warning system devices have been installed in the Garhwal division and 100 in Kumaon division. Flood warning systems have also been installed at eight sensitive locations on the banks of Ganga from Koteshwar to Rishikesh. Officials at the state and district level have also been trained in incident response systems.

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Digital divide may turn shift to online classes operational nightmare, warn experts - education

From virtual classes to open-book exams, the coronavirus pandemic may have forced classroom learning online but the digital divide in the country may turn it into an “operational nightmare”, experts have warned.

Suicide by a Kerala schoolgirl allegedly over not having access to a smartphone to attend classes, stories of students in remote areas having to sit on rooftops to catch Internet, siblings competing to get their parents’ gadgets are just a few case studies of the existing “worrisome” digital divide, they said.

According to the Key Indicators of Household Social Consumption on Education in India report, based on the 2017-18 National Sample Survey, less than 15 per cent of rural Indian households have access to Internet as opposed to 42 per cent in urban households. A mere 13 per cent of people surveyed (aged above five) in rural areas — just 8.5 per cent female — could use the Internet. The poorest households cannot afford a smartphone or a computer, according to the survey.

“The implications of school closures in the country due to COVID-19 pandemic are not just about education. They are manifold. The Kerala schoolgirl’s death, pictures of a girl trying to study from a tilted rooftop to get signals, three kids in a house trying to have their share of their parents’ phone to attend the lessons, these are worrisome case studies. “An unprecedented social disaster can be avoided if more entities pitch into short-term and long-term future of the children in this digital divide,” said Rajni Palriwala, HOD, Department of Sociology, Delhi University.

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 nationwide lockdown was announced on March 24, which came into effect the next day. As per official statistics, there are over 35 crore students in the country. However, it is not clear as to how many of them have access to digital devices and Internet.

While the government has announced easing of certain restrictions, schools and colleges continue to remain closed.

“It is good that we have moved online for teaching and learning to ensure that schooling is not completely suspended. But there is a flip-side to it too. When the world has moved indoors and technology has taken over major roles, the digital have-nots are pushed to the edge. Sooner or later they will be left out of the race. “The students in rural India or the poor populace in urban centres are having extreme difficulties in using such services and we don’t have any policy in place to address that. In a way, we are only heading towards an operational nightmare,” a Delhi University professor said.

The professor is among a group of four faculty members who have written a letter to President Ram Nath Kovind against Delhi University’s decision to conduct online exams through open-book mode, saying it will push students belonging to economically weaker section and those with disabilities on the wrong side of the digital divide.

“Education is the greatest equalizer but the coronavirus crisis has come as a setback to this journey in important ways. When schools and colleges move online, students with lesser digital access get further disadvantaged, and those without any digital access are at risk of dropping out altogether. “Especially, at the school level, the digital divide poses a risk of nullifying some of India’s hard-won enrolment gains,” said Sangeeta D Gadre, a professor at Kirori Mal College.

The principal of a school in Haryana’s Mewat, who refused to be identified, said, “Like every other country, India is also witnessing an e-learning boom. Classes on Zoom, WhatsApp and Skype are becoming the norm. But the digital disparity is growing starker as more schools begin to adopt virtual tools.” “We are reading a lot about how learning is happening online, but are not able to implement it here (Mewat) for the simple reason that not everyone has access to a smartphone or Internet. There can be no shortcuts to either learning or inclusivity. Our policy-makers need to address the fact that online courses will exclude numerous students,” she said.

Infosys Chairman Nandan Nilekani has also flagged the issue, saying the shift to online learning is only a “short-term response”.

“Reimagining education and staying ahead of the curve should be the number 1 priority for the government right now. For households that don’t have access to smartphone or feature phone, we will have to use our physical infrastructure. “People may not have a device but they could be close to a digital service centre which will have the devices. Worksheets can be delivered to students and once student finishes the worksheets it can be delivered back to the centres. The centres can then upload the worksheet. Himachal is doing this. We will have to innovate,” he said at a virtual conference on “Reimagining Education”.

Urvashi Sahni, a fellow at the Center for Universal Education at the Brookings Institution, said, “Technology has the potential to achieve universal quality education and improve learning outcomes. But in order to unleash its potential, the digital divide (and the embedded gender divide) must be addressed”. “Access to technology and Internet is an urgent requirement in the information age. It should no longer be a luxury,” she said.

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IIT researchers ‘develop’ technology for making high efficiency masks from plastic bottles - education

Researchers at IIT Mandi claim to have developed a technology for making high efficiency masks using waste pet bottles that are not only more breathable than commercially available masks but also can be washed and reused up to 30 times.

The team at the Indian Institute of Technology Mandi has also filed a patent for the waste plastic bottles derived filter membrane technology based on electrospinning.

The researchers shredded waste plastic bottles and dissolved the pieces using a combination of solvents and extruded nanofibres from the solution.

According to Sumit Sinha Ray, Assistant Professor, IIT Mandi, the team used waste plastic bottles to develop a single thin layer of nano-nonwoven membrane that provides desirable particle filtration efficiency, at par with N95 respirator and a medical mask. “The first concern that comes to mind when we hear that something is made of plastic is whether it is safe to use. These nanofibres meet the safety requirements of the user by excluding the bacteria and infectious components. The breathability in the developed masks is better than the commercially available masks. “At the laboratory scale, the material cost for the mask was around Rs 25 per piece. However, during the commercial manufacturing stage, its cost will be nearly halved. The mask can be washed and reused up to 30 times,” Ray told PTI.

“Nanofibres can do wonders for masks. Air-borne particulate and pollutant removal efficiency and breathability are the two main criteria for efficient masks. Commercially available melt blown fabric-based masks can be efficient at a cost of high breathing resistance, whereas generic three-ply surgical masks are breathable but have meagre efficiency. Nanofibres based masks can filter out small particles effectively despite being comfortably breathable,” he explained.

The team claimed that the masks will not require any separate protocol to be followed for their disposal than the standard hygiene measures.

Ashish Kakoria, a research scholar at the institute and one of the team members, said, “These ultrafine fibres allow less resistance in airflow due to a unique phenomenon called ‘slip flow’ which improves breathability. Moreover, the thrown away PET bottles can be put to good use using this technique.” The coronavirus pandemic has mandated the use of masks by people to avoid contracting the infection. India registered its highest single-day spike of COVID-19 cases for the fifth consecutive day on Sunday, with 9,971 new infections taking the country’s tally to 2,46,628, while the death toll rose to 6,929, according to the Union Health Ministry.

The country registered 287 deaths in the last 24 hours since Saturday morning.

India had raced past Spain on Saturday to become the fifth worst-hit nation by the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, only the US, Brazil, Russia and the UK are ahead of it.

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