The Wrap: CBSE board exams; IITs’ SC, ST alumni group; India's slide on Global Hunger Index

Latest Education News: This was a big week for school education with some major announcements and some seriously discouraging revelations. The Central Board of Secondary Education announced the practical exam dates for CBSE board exam 2024 for both CBSE Class 10 and CBSE Class 12 students. Several others, including Assam board, Gujarat board (GSEB) and Haryana board (BSEH) announced or changed dates for board exams 2024.

Kerala made its draft curriculum framework public for comment. Its new education policy is significantly different from the union government’s National Education Policy (NEP 202) in several ways, starting with the way school education is structured. Karnataka, which has already junked the previous state government’s education policies and halted the implementation of NEP 2020, set up a panel to frame the state education policy. The panel will be led by former University Grants Commission (UGC) chairman, Sukhadeo Thorat, include scholars from institutions across the country and have a group of advisors including political scientist and politician, Yogendra Yadav.

A committee has been established, under the chairmanship of Prof. Sukhdev Thorat, to prepare the draft of the Karnataka State Education Policy.

I am confident that this committee will provide suitable recommendations for nurturing scientific temperament, intellectual growth, and… pic.twitter.com/hfF6Rymnoz

— CM of Karnataka (@CMofKarnataka) October 11, 2023

Then, Bihar, which has overhauled its teacher recruitment system, announced a recruitment drive for over 69,000 teacher vacancies in upper-primary to senior-secondary schools.

Finally, the Global Hunger Index 2023 brought distressing news. India landed at the 111th spot out of a total of 127 countries, below last year’s position and behind all its neighbours including Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka. It also has the world’s highest child wasting rate.

What’s scheduled for next week? Our calendar alert – ‘Heads-up’ – is on Instagram. Follow here to stay updated!

Here’s what else happened in education over the week.

Policy: UGC frames new guidelines for internships, directs universities to update disclosures

• The UGC has framed new guidelines for internship and research in the four-year undergraduate programme. These are the final ones. The UGC also wrote to universities, asking them to update mandatory disclosures such as information on admission policies, fees, scholarships, annual reports and others on their websites. UGC chairman M Jagadesh Kumar said this “checklist” was provided to ultimately help stakeholders.
• The National Medical Commission responded to criticism of its guidelines for undergraduate medicine limiting the number of MBBS seats saying that it will reduce regional disparities in distribution of healthcare workers. The NMC also asked colleges to submit MBBS seat details for medical college admissions for 2023-24.
• The union government has launched the SHRESHTA scheme to provide residential schooling for historically-marginalised Scheduled Caste students.
• The Andhra Pradesh government launched a programme to modernise skill development institutes. It has earmarked a budget of Rs 100 crore.
• Himachal Pradesh’s department of education made career counselling a must for schools.

College Admissions: NEET 2024 syllabus raises questions about JEE Main 2024 syllabus; IIM Calcutta assigns CAT 2023 30% weightage

• The syllabus for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test – Undergraduate was released earlier. The few cuts in the NEET 2024 syllabus had candidates speculating about cuts in the JEE Main 2024 syllabus. The JEE Main is for admission to undergraduate engineering.
• The Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) which conducts NEET counselling warned students against fake admission forms for PG medicine circulating on social media. Plus, applications for the Foreign Medical Graduates Exam (FMGE December 2023) starts from October 16.
• Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Calcutta announced its admission policy for the 2024-26 batch of students. The Common Admission Test is on November 26. The CAT 2023 admit card is expected on October 25.
• The schedule for the NEET PG counselling 2023 for the stray vacancy round has been announced in several states.

IIM Calcutta announced its admission policy and CAT 2023 weightage (Image: IIM-C)

College Education News: SC-ST alumni of IITs form mentoring group; ICSI result causes furore

• Indian Institutes of Technology alumni from the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes have formed a mentoring group to support SC-ST BTech students in IITs through placements, mental health challenges and more.
• Thousands of students alleged shoddy marking in CS Professional and Executive exams after the ICSI results were declared. This is a programme for training company secretaries. ICSI responded to the criticism with hostility and what students described as a ‘gag order’.
• The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) has signed an agreement with Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) that clears the way for credit transfer between programmes run by the two. The ICAI CA November 2023 exams have been rescheduled due to assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
• IIT Kanpur saw two kabaddi teams get into a fight; the video showing players hitting each other with chairs went viral and teams from two colleges were banned.
• IIT Madras honoured 12 of its alumni who were part of the Chandrayaan 3 mission. IIT Madras Zanzibar campus will open in early November, said education minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
• The National Testing Agency (NTA) announced exams dates for the January 2024 session on SWAYAM. Exams are from May 18.
• The NMC held an emergency meeting on ragging after a postgraduate medical student died by suicide following harassment.
• Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS) Pilani inaugurated its innovation centre; an entrepreneur contributed USD 12 million for it.
• The Department of Science and Technology (DST) gave GITAM a Rs 1,369 crore grant for research in drug discovery and marine biology.

School Education News: CBSE Class 10, 12 practical exams; Gujarat Board (GSEB), Assam (SEBA) dates out

• Gujarat Board (GSEB) announced 2024 exam dates for Classes 10 and 12 and and also announced significant changes in the GSEB Class 10 and Class 12 exam patterh. Assam Board (SEBA) announced dates for HSLC exam 2024.
• The CBSE has done away with printed tables in Class 12 board exam accountancy answer book.
• Haryana Board (BSEH) has made changes to the maths and geography exam dates for Classes 10 and 12 for the 2024 board exams.
• The JNVST Class 6 admit card for the test for admission to Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas will be out on November 4.

Study Abroad

• The British Council invited applications for the UK Alumni Award.