India's First Indigenous Moocs Platform To Be Launched Soon

Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Smriti Irani has said the government will unveil India’s first indigenous MOOCs (Massive Open Online Course) platform which seeks to give free of cost education in conjunction with institutions like IITs, IIMs, Central Universities NIOS and boards like CBSE”. 

The draft of the new education policy will be submitted by the TSR Subramaniam Committee soon, Union Minister for Human Resource Development Smriti Irani said on Tuesday.

“We have received suggestions from people living in 1.10 lakh villages and over 1,500 municipal bodies ... we have prepared a document with the help of expert team, including advice by education councils, to improve the education system. It will be unveiled in 15-20 days," Irani said in an interview to All India Radio on Monday. 

She also said it is for the first time that a ”National Education Policy” was being prepared after consulting people living in villages and far-flung areas.

She also added that her government is taking RTE (Right to Education) passed by the earlier UPA government towards its real objective. "The previous government got passed the RTE but failed to make any provision for fees of 25 per cent students whom they have provided seat reservation in private schools. We made the required arrangements and have paid for the education of 18 lakh students after checking their records through state governments," she said.

She also added that her ministry has readied a Cabinet note for upgrading Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad to an IIT.

Crediting Prime Minister Narendra Modi for all these efforts, she said the human resource development (HRD) ministry has digitised National Council of Educational Research (NCER) and Training books from Class 9 to 12. All these books will be available at free of cost in English, Hindi and Urdu through a mobile app," HRD minister said. 

She will launch a web portal - Bharatvani - shortly on several subjects ranging from teaching to learning in 22 Indian languages. For this, HRD minister invited industry leaders to become partner in these institutes. The HRD minister has said various foreign universities are collaborating with Indian Institutes under the UGC (University Grant Commission) so that Indian students can get the best of education easily at home. 

She said these universities will not be used for political purpose and remain temples of learning. 

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44 Universities Lost Deemed Status- Disadvantageous of studying in these Universities

The Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister, Smriti Irani government has upheld its predecessor UPA government's decision to blacklist 44 universities and has rejected UGC's recommendations to clear 34 of them. The ministry has also termed the UGC's report as “flimsy” and “untenable”.

In the affidavit that the HRD-Smriti Irani submitted to the Supreme Court, the ministry stated, “UGC’s expert committees have inspected and submitted their reports in 2009 without cognizance to any criteria. The relevant provisions under the UGC Act, Guidelines and Regulations have not been taken into cognizance for inspection and formulation of the reports. HRD also said, “it is technically and legally untenable for the ministry to take an informed decision on the basis of such flimsy reports”.

In 2009, HRD minister Kapil Sibal set up Tandon Committee which recommended black-listing of 44 deemed universities. The committee had stated in its report that these universities were completely unfit for the recognition that endows an institution not only with authority to grant degrees but also an approval of quality, which in turn can draw students by large number.

Of these 44, three voluntarily universities surrendered their deemed-to-be status or went on to become institutes of national importance. Amongst the blacklisted universities, many of them challenged the credibility of the report in the apex court. Soon after, UGC also came up with its own report, recommending that only seven of the 41 remaining blacklisted universities should have been their deemed- to-be university status taken away.

Nine parameters were taken into consideration when evaluation was being done. These parameters were found as the disadvantage of these universities:

Conformity to the provisions of the UGC Act and UGC guidelines

Aspects of governance

Quality of and innovations in teaching-learning process

Research output

Doctoral and other research degree programme

Faculty resource

Admission processes 

Award of degrees

The University Grants Commission (UGC) has come up with a list of fake institutions in the nation. These institutions are running without permission against the UGC Act, 1956. 

Region-wise list:

Bihar 

Maithili University, Darbhanga, Bihar

Delhi 

Commercial University Ltd, Daryaganj, Delhi

United Nations University, Delhi

Vocational University, Delhi

Indian Institute of Science and Engineering, New Delhi

Karnataka

Bdaganvi government World Open University Education Society, Gokak, Belgaum (Karnataka)

Kerala

St. John's University, Krishnttm, Kerala

Madhya Pradesh

Kesrwani School, Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh

Maharashtra

Raja Arabic University, Nagpur

Tamil Nadu

Dildilbi Sanskrit University, Puthur, Trichy, Tamil Nadu,

West Bengal

Indian Institute of Alternative Medicine, Kolkata

Uttar Pradesh

Waransey Sanskrit University, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh;

Mahila Gram Vidyapith/Vishwavidyalaya, (Women's University) Prayag, Allahabad, UP;

Gandhi Hindi Vidyapith, Prayag, Allahabad, UP;

National University of Electro Complex Homeopathy, Kanpur, UP;

Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose University (Open University), Acltal, Aligarh, UP;

Uttar Pradesh University, Koshi art, Mathura, UP;

Maharana Pratap Shiksha Niketan Vishwavidyalaya, Pratapgarh, UP;

Indraprastha Shiksha Parishad, Institutional Area, Erase, Maknpur, Noida Phase-II, UP;

Gurukul Vishwavidyalaya,Vrindavan, UP

Degrees from these universities will be considered invalid.

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