Jun 13 2017 : The Times of India (NaviMumbai)

 

All boards may soon have common core curriculum





New, Scientific Moderation Policy From 2018 

 

The Union human resource development ministry will curb the “malpractice of spiking of marks“ and implement a more scientific moderation policy from 2018.The Delhi high court had restrained the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) --primarily because of the timing of the latter's decision--from doing away with its moderation policy this year.

 

The HRD ministry has set up an inter-board working group comprising eight boards to work out details to stop moderation and upward revision of marks. “It could not hap pen as planned this year. But we are working things out for all boards from next year. In fact, all the boards have agreed to stop spiking marks from next year,“ an official said. Some boards had raised certain issues at the April 24, 2017 meeting about implementing moderation of marks this year, but they are in agreement about 2018, a senior HRD official said. According to the plan, all boards are to move towards adopting a common core curriculum, the grace marks policy is to be uploaded on websites, and marks and grades for extracurricular subjects are to be given separately .

The plan is also to share question papers (with CBSE) to bring about uniformity in assessment.
In April, 32 school education boards agreed not to moderate marks (for upward revision) this year, but the Delhi high court, acting on a petition, restrained CBSE from implementing it. Meanwhile, some boards have continued the practice of “inflating marks“.

However, the HRD ministry was encouraged by the fact that some boards, like those of Punjab and Karnataka, adhered to the consensus and made an effort. “We have seen that a few boards didn't moderate marks this year and the results reflected that. There are quite a few of them. So that's a start,“ the official said.

IBWG will deliberate regularly and work out a model for all boards to follow.
It has also been decided that CBSE will share question papers with states that use NCERT books “so that there is uniformity across all states in difficulty levels of questions and in the subsequent evaluations“.

“We have a year's time now to plan and initiate wider consultation as the states are already on board.This is crucial if we are to arrest variations in results, which affect students adversely, bring about uniformity in evaluation and improve the quality of education.However, more space should be given to the state boards and their concerns addressed,“ a member of the IBWG said.



Source: Jun 13 2017 : The Times of India (NaviMumbai)

NEET hopefuls to get 8 bonus marks, want 4 queries reviewed

Yogita Rao | Mumbai:





File Appeal Online Till 6pm Today 

 

Several medical aspirants are not content with the answer key for NEET-undergraduate released by the CBSE on Thursday and plan to challenge it.

 

While the CBSE's expert committee has already identified two questions in the physics section in the many of the sets to be ambiguous, students and coaching institutes claim answers for at least two more questions--one each in zoology and chemistry (see box) --given in the answer key , are incorrect. Many are also upset about the committee not acknowledging two questions asked on the physiology of `frogs' which was out of the scope of NEET syllabus. The paper has 180 questions, each carrying four marks.

The answer key was released after the Supreme Court lifted the stay on the assessment of NEET and announcement of results. In four question sets, two physics questions were marked as `multiplewrong options' in the answer key . “This will either mean that the NEET committee will omit these questions or give eight marks to all students as bonus,“ said a teacher from a coaching institute. A CBSE official said the expert committee reviews the questions before putting up the answer key . “They already identified two questions as ambiguous in the answer key ... How it will be accounted for during the assessment will be their prerogative,“ said the official.

Nishit Chhaya, an aspirant from Airoli, said it is unfair that students waste time in finding solutions to these ambiguous questions. “ Also in a competitive exam like NEET, every mark will make a difference in the rank. If there are ambiguities in a handful of questions, and if it is not addressed, students will end up losing these precious marks,“ he said. “To ask something which is not even there in the syllabus is unfair,“ said Chhaya.

Anurag Tiwari, the national academic head of a leading coaching institute, said the answers given by the board in one question each in zoology and chemistry were `incorrect'. “We have asked most of our students to challenge it,“ said Tiwari. Parents claim the board usually does not acknowledge these challenges. “They charge Rs 1,000 for challenging each question. But most times, they do not even acknowledge them,“ said Sudha Shenoy , a parent.

The board official said the challenges are reviewed by experts' committee and their decision is final. Students can challenge the questions till 6 pm on Friday . The Supreme Court has asked CBSE to announce NEET results by June 26.





Source:Jun 16 2017 : The Times of India (NaviMumbai)

Education dept to declare four cut-off lists for FYJC

Published & Updated : THE ASIAN AGE.  |  Jun 17, 2017

 

This will include bifocal and vocational courses and the number of seats available per course.

 

 

 The FYJC online addmissions started on Friday.

 

Mumbai: First year junior college (FYJC) online admissions for the new academic year being conducted by the state school education department started on Friday and will end on August 3. The education department has announced that it will declare four cut-off lists but if needed, colleges can put up more cut-off lists to fill vacant seats.

According to education department officials, subjects offered by every college will be listed next to its name. This will include bifocal and vocational courses and the number of seats available per course. This will help students make an informed choice, they said.

FYJC admissions will see students who have passed the secondary school certificate (SSC) exams on Tuesday competing with their counterparts from non-state boards such as CBSE and ICSE. While 3.8 lakh students have passed in the Mumbai division, only about 2 lakh seats are available across streams. The education department has subsequently increased number of seats in science and commerce streams in city colleges. The arts stream has seen no such increase. This year, 5,600 additional science seats and 3,000 additional commerce seats had been made available. The number of seats in the arts stream has dropped by 1,000 whereas nearly 6,000 seats are available for vocational courses.

Principal of Ruparel College, Tushar Desai, told The Asian Age, “Most of the students opt for arts as they want to pursue further careers by cracking competitive exams. In arts, they can spend maximum time studying while in science, there are practicals and journals. Albeit this year the results are fair enough but the education department has increased the number of seats so there shouldn’t be any problem. Besides, many students opt for a diploma as well.”

The total number of seats in the city has gone up from 2,78,282 last year to 2,92,090 this year, with 13,808 more seats up for grabs.

Admission timetable
 

• Submission of online forms: June 16-27 

• Normal list will be out: June 30 (till 5pm evening)

• First cut-off list will be out: July 7 (till 5pm evening)

• Admission date first cut-off: July 8 to 11

• Second cut-off list will be out: July 17 (till 5pm evening)

• Admission date for second cut-off list: July 18 to 19

• Third cut-off list (if needed): July 25 (till 5pm evening)

• Admission: July 26-27 (till 5pm evening)

• Fourth cut-off (if needed): August 1 (till 5pm evening)

• Admission: August 2 to 3 (till 5pm evening)

 Source: http://www.asianage.com/metros/mumbai/170617/education-dept-to-declare-four-cut-off-lists-for-fyjc.html

Jun 13, 2017 03:27 PM IST | Source: Moneycontrol.com

Inflated marks: Will CBSE, ICSE and state boards all get on the same page?

A common curriculum for select subjects is also on the cards.

The Union Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) will scrap the policy of moderation and adopt the National Centre for Educational Research and Training (NCERT) curriculum for select subjects among other measures to prevent inflated marksheets by 2018.

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), the Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE), National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) and all state Boards had agreed to implement these reforms in a meeting held on April 24.

The Centre has now set up a working group called the Inter Board Working Group (IBWG) to smoothen out the issues. It will be headed by the CBSE chairman and will contain members from the ICSE and the state boards of Gujarat, J&K, Karnataka, Telangana, Chhattisgarh, Kerala and Manipur.

"We have a year's time now to plan and initiate wider consultation as the states are already on board. This is crucial if we are to arrest variations in results which affect students adversely, bring about uniformity in an evaluation and improve the quality of education," an IBWG member said in a Times Of India report.

What is moderation?

Moderation was a practice introduced in 1992 to reduce the subjectivity that examiners bring to their marking. Some examiners are stricter while others liberal and this disrupted the uniformity in marking standards.
With moderation, the marks of Class 10 and 12 students were adjusted to maintain parity in the pass percentages between years, to factor the time constraints faced by the students in answering the paper and to make up for the differences in the difficulty levels of different sets of question papers in the same subject.

Why is moderation getting scrapped?

The moderation policy was being misused by most state boards to spike the marks, resulting the number of students that scored 90 percent and above to peak abnormally.
This trend was spotted by bloggers Debarghya Das and Prashant Bhattacharji, who looked at ICSE and CBSE results respectively. Bhattacharji plotted the 2013 results on a graph which showed a sudden spike in the number of students scoring 95 percent.

Why was this a bad thing?

The fallout of this liberal marking was that it caused the universities to set impossible cutoff rates, the 100 percent Delhi University cutoffs being the prime example. The HRD Ministry also suspected that state boards were spiking marks to give a competitive edge to the students for the admissions at the undergraduate level.

What next?

The decisions made by the IBWG also include marking extracurricular activities (for example, physical education), separately from a student’s overall academic performance. To bring about uniformity, all 32 boards have agreed to adopt the NCERT curriculum for subjects such as science and mathematics. The CBSE has also offered to share its question papers with state Boards to create papers of similar difficulty.

Will about 'grace marks'?

‘Grace marks’ and moderation are two separate practices. Grace marks are given to improve pass percentages. They will remain, on the condition that all boards will publish their grace marks policy on the official website, and print the grace marks awarded on the student’s marksheet.

Source Link: http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/trends/current-affairs-trends/inflated-marks-will-cbse-icse-and-state-boards-all-get-on-the-same-page-2302777.html

CBSE NEET Answer Keys 2017: Last date to challenge is TODAY till 5 PM

Lat date to challenge CBSE NEET answer key is June 16 on the official website i.e cbseneet.nic.in. This year CBSE NEET exam 2017 was conducted on May 7 for which about 11,38,890 candidates appeared at 1921 centres across 103 cities.

By News Nation Bureau  |  Updated On : June 16, 2017

CBSE NEET Answer Keys 2017: Last date to challenge is TODAY till 5 PM

New Delhi :   NEET 2017 answer key: The Central Board of Secondary Education has published the answer key for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) 2017 at cbseneet.nic.in.

The OMR answer sheet will be available only for two days instead of three days as mentioned in information bulletin and so can be challenged only till 5 pm, June 16.

The CBSE has conducted NEET exam in 10 languages including Hindi, English, Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Marathi, Tamil, Oriya, Kannada and Telugu.

“The candidates can check the scanned images of their OMR sheets and answer keys by logging into their account using their user ID (registration number) and password on the NEET website. The candidates willing to challenge the responses of their OMR sheet and answers prepared by CBSE may do so by paying a fee of Rs 1,000 per response/per question challenged as explained in the Information Bulletin-2017,” the CBSE said in a statement.

Steps to download NEET 2017 answer key: 

- Go to the official website for NEET (cbseneet.nic.in).

- Click on the notification for the 2017 answer key.

-Download the answer key and cross check your answers from the OMR sheets.

SC said NEET result 2017 and subsequent counselling & admission will be subject to its decision on matter pending before it. The Supreme court on Monday requested HCs not to entertain petitions on matters relating to NEET examination 2017.

After so much of delay the Supreme Court has asked The Central Board of Secondary Education to declare NEET Result 2017 befor June 26.

This year CBSE NEET exam 2017 was conducted on May 7 for which about 11,38,890 candidates appeared at 1921 centres across 103 cities.

Source: http://www.newsnation.in/education/exam-results/cbse-neet-answer-keys-2017-lat-date-to-challenge-answer-key-and-omr-is-june-16-till-5-pm-article-174217.html

Career Articles

`JEE answer key may be challenged'

Mumbai: TNN





The answer key for the JEE (Main) exam was released by the CBSE on Tuesday .

 

While many students had raised doubts about a few ambiguous questions, none of them were acknowledged in the answer key . “Some students are planning to challenge the answer key .But the CBSE has never acknowledged ambiguities in questions in the past too.

The exercise may be futile,“ said Vinay Kumar, from a coaching institute.





Source: The Times of India | Apr 19 2017 | (NaviMumbai)

Hindi could be compulsory till Class 10 in all Kendriya Vidyalayas, other CBSE schools

BY : Rajesh Ahuja |  Hindustan Times, New Delhi

education Updated: Apr 18, 2017 12:08 IST

Hindi in schools across India can be an emotive subject as most states are drawn along linguistics lines.(File photo)

Students of Kendriya Vidyalayas and schools affiliated to the CBSE may have to read Hindi till Class 10 after President Pranab Mukherjee gave “in- principle approval” to a suggestion of a parliamentary panel.
The Centre, however, should draw up the policy to make Hindi a compulsory subject in consultation with states, said the presidential order, a copy of which is available on the website of the department of official languages.
Hindi in schools can be an emotive subject as most states in India are drawn along linguistics lines. States such as Tamil Nadu have witnessed violent protests against Hindi, the official language of the Indian government.
The choice of languages to be taught in schools varies from state to state.
The Central Board of Secondary Education, the country’s biggest school board, last year recommended a three-language formula – English and any two Indian languages – to be expanded to classes 9 and 10.
While Hindi is likely choice for north India, in other parts, states are expected to pick from any of the 22 Indian languages recognised by the Constitution. The human resource and development ministry is yet to respond to the CBSE suggestion.

The President turned down a recommendation that wanted a minimum knowledge of Hindi to be one of the preconditions for a government job.

The committee of parliament on official languages made 117 suggestions to encourage use of Hindi, most of these have been accepted by the President.

One of them calls for fixing the duration of broadcast of Hindi programmes on all Doordarshan centres and All India Radio stations.

We may soon see presidents and union ministers deliver speeches in Hindi. The panel said all dignitaries should be requested to deliver their speeches in Hindi if they can read and speak the language.
Mukherjee has also accepted the recommendation that said the government, wherever possible, should give all advertisements in Hindi and regional languages.

Source :  https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5948460823285813023#editor/target=post;postID=5363311665211890901

JEE main 2017: Answer keys, OMR sheets available, check details here

JEE main 2017: The Board announced that the OMR sheets and the recorded responses of the candidates who have appeared for Paper 1 will be displayed from April 18 to 22, 2017.

By: Express Web Desk | New Delhi | Updated: April 18, 2017 10:46 am

 

 

 

  JEE main 2017: The CBSE announced that the answer keys for both online and offline exams will be available after April 18 till April 22, 2017.
 
JEE main 2017: The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has released a notification about the answer keys and answer sheets of the Indian Institute of Technology Joint Entrance Examination (IIT JEE) main 2017 which was conducted on April 2.

The links for the answer keys and the recorded responses have been provided on the JEE main home page. Click on the links to access the results page.

The Board announced that the OMR sheets and the recorded responses of the candidates who have appeared for Paper 1 will be displayed from April 18 to 22, 2017.

The CBSE also announced that the answer keys for both online and offline exams will be available after April 18 till April 22, 2017. Those who wish to check their answer key can check the same on the date when the answer keys are published.



Further, the Board has asked candidates who are not satisfied with the answer keys to submit their challenges “by following due procedure”.

The JEE main examination this year was considered to be of moderate difficulty this year. Though many students found the mathematics section difficult, the rest of the examination was fairly simple, according to experts. The cut off is predicted to be at 105 this year due to more number of students participating and due to the easier physics and chemistry sections as compared to the previous years.

Source: http://indianexpress.com/article/education/jeemain-nic-in-iit-jee-main-2017-answer-keys-cbse-nic-in-omr-sheets-to-be-displayed-from-april-18-4616251/