ANyone watching: I still have the belt my teacher used to beat me with at school: Alex Ferguson

Former Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson says he owes his success to being beaten with a belt by his favourite school-teacher when he stepped out of line as a schoolboy.

Ferguson, 72, the most successful manager in British soccer history, says he now has the belt in his study at home after it was bequeathed to him by the formidable disciplinarian Elizabeth Thomson before she died.

"Six from that belt and you were in absolute agony. That was the punishment you had, in my case, usually for fighting in the playground," he said in a feature entitled "My Best Teacher" published by the Times Educational Supplement.

Ferguson, famous for being a fierce disciplinarian himself whose "hair dryer" verbal admonishments of his players are the stuff of legend, said: "Elizabeth Thomson was an inspiration to me.

"She had a raw determination about her and she improved everyone she touched.

"Mrs Thomson endeavoured to make you be the best you could be. Yes, that part of me comes from her."

He says he kept in touch with her long after his schooldays ended, and while he was enjoying trophy-laden years of success at first Aberdeen and then Manchester United before he retired at the end of last season.

"When she died, I couldn't go to her funeral but months later I got a parcel. She had bequeathed her belt to me.

"Her nephew sent it with a letter saying 'You'll know more about this belt than anyone.' It's in my study now. My grandchildren are terrified of it."

Corporal punishment was banned in Glasgow schools in 1982. Ferguson went to school in the 1950s.

My Viewpoint: I strongly believe that teacher must have some liberty of punishing the students when rightfully needed. 

CBSE BANS SCHOOL INTEGRATED PROGRAMMES

Central Board of Secondary Education has asked all its affiliated schools through a circular to ban running of coaching institutions inside the school premises that claim to prepare students for entrance examinations like the Joint Entrance Examination All India Entrance Examination for admission to the IITs or other engineering colleges or National Eligibility Test for medical colleges .

Criticizing the practice as a commercial activity and a 'malpractice' the circular from CBSE secretary Joseph Immanuel said on not complying to the instructions mentioned in the circular that is a condition stipulated in CBSE's affiliation bylaws, the board is liable to take actions against the school.

"No coaching classes or parallel classes should be run in the school that consumes and affects the regular timetable of the school or that [affects] the focus of students on the regular course of study," said the circular.

The move however has attained mixed reaction. Where some students and their guardian find the practice a help as it saves their time in finding an alternative coaching center, others find the move by the board progressive as students not enrolled with the coaching centre face inequality in receiving learning.

Schools running coaching institutes often add it as its selling point helping them to hike fee structure irrationally. Some of these schools charge as much as Rs 4 lakh to 6 lakh for the courses they conduct as a package from Classes 8 to 12.

 Source: TV TODAY NETWORK

My Viewpoint: Well I welcome this move as such programs are basically promoting commercial interests instead of serving the students. 

IISER ADMISSIONS 2014

Applications are invited for admission to the five year BS-MS Dual Degree programme at Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISERs) at Bhopal, Kolkata, Mohali, Pune and Thiruvananthapuram for the academic session beginning on August 2014.

About IISERs

To promote high quality scientific education, research and training, Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), Government of India has set up five Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISERs) at Bhopal, Kolkata, Mohali, Pune and Thiruvananthapuram

BS-MS Dual Degree Programme

It is a five year dual degree programme for bright and motivated science students who have completed class XII. It integrates classroom learning with research and provides ample scope for multidisciplinary interactions

Admission to BS-MS Dual Degree Programme 2014

Students will be admitted to the Five Year BS-MS Dual Degree programme beginning August 2014 through the following channels
1.Kishore Vaigyanik Protsahan Yojana (KVPY) Basic Science Stream: Students qualifying in SA (2012)/SX (2013)/SB (2013)
2.Joint Entrance Examination (Advanced) 2014: Students securing a place in the rank list of Joint Entrance Examination (Advanced) for admission to Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs)
3.State and Central Boards: Those, who are eligible for INSPIRE scholarship by Department of Science and Technology (DST) on the basis of their aggregate scores in class XII may be considered for admission after clearing an aptitude test

Important Date Chart

	KVPY	JEE (Advanced)	State and Central Boards
Receiving online applications	7th June – 7th July 2014	23rd June – 7th July 2014	15th June – 10th July 2014
Counseling/Aptitude Test	10th July 2014	10th July 2014	20th July 2014
Last date for receiving admission fees	17th July 2014	17th July 2014	29th July 2014

Scholarship

BS-MS students are eligible for either KVPY or INSPIRE scholarship

Key Features

1.Highly competent and motivated faculty in various disciplines with a passion for science
2.Integrated undergraduate teaching with cutting edge research across disciplines
3.Upcoming eco-friendly green campuses with appropriate infrastructure
4.Library with online resources, books and research journals
5.State of the art teaching and research facilities
6.Sports and recreational facilities
7.Hostel facility for all students
Applications can be submitted online at www.iiser-admissions.in

CBSE XII Examinations: All The Best

All the Best For CBSE XII Board Examination starting from tomorrow 1 march'2014.

Do well!!!

RGIPT: All is not Well

The students of Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Petroleum Technology (RGIPT) have been peacefully protesting since last week against the ignorant attitude of the management for their concerns.  RGIPT is an ‘Institute of National Importance’ set up by Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Govt. of India as per the vision of Late Shri Rajiv Gandhi in the year 2008.

It is promoted by 6 major oil PSUs (ONGC, IOCL, BPCL, HPCL, OIL and GAIL) and OIDB. The admission to this institute is through IIT-JEE (Advanced). Part of the vision was to cater the needs of oil and gas industry with skilled manpower but sadly the institute has not been able to live up to it.

Even after 6 years of establishment the institute lacks a permanent campus due to which R&D, industrial interaction and ultimately placements have been severely hindered. The hopes and aspirations of the students at RGIPT and their guardians have gone sour due to lack of attention on part of college administration and policy makers. The management has always slacked to justify its negligence on the concerns that the students have been raising. But what is aggravating is that their future is being played with false hopes and ignorant attitude of management. The status of campus placements is abysmal in comparison to other ordinary engineering colleges, what to talk of IITs, ISM and NITs. The students are a frustrated lot and this has led the students to take extreme measures. The protests lead the management to address their concerns and make promises that actions would be taken. Such protests were held last two years also but only verbal assurances were made to the students with no substantial results. The students have decided that this agonizing procedure can no longer be borne with and their protest will continue until the assurances given to them turn into substantial actions.

RGIPT was publicized to be a flagship institute of the UPA chairperson. Simultaneous to their protest, a group of students met Shri Rahul Gandhi during his visit to Amethi on 19th February, 2014. He was sensitive to their concerns and promised them to visit their campus at Rae Bareli. They look forward to bring-forth the issues to him so that their grievances could be heard.

As Posted on bhadas4media.com

Transistor Simplified: CBSE CLASS XII PHYSICS NOTES

Well here I provide you the short and sweet notes to simplify the transistor , the problem faced by majority of XII students.
All the best!!

CBSE LATEST SAMPLE PAPERS for 2014 Board Exams

CBSE has issued latest sample papers for 2014 examinations.
You can check them here
1. Physics: http://www.cbseacademic.in/web_material/Circulars/2013/74_ClassXII/Physics_XII.pdf
2. Maths: http://www.cbseacademic.in/web_material/Circulars/2013/74_ClassXII/Mathematics_XII.pdf
3. Chemistry:  http://www.cbseacademic.in/web_material/Circulars/2013/74_ClassXII/Chemistry_XII.pdf
4. Biology:  http://www.cbseacademic.in/web_material/Circulars/2013/74_ClassXII/Biology_XII.pdf
5. English Core:http://www.cbseacademic.in/web_material/Circulars/2013/74_ClassXII/English_Core_XII.p

Medical Students Protest Against Longer Duration of MBBS

Medical students today held a protest here against the proposal for increasing the duration of the MBBS course from the existing 5.5 years to 6.5 years with the addition of a compulsory one-year rural posting for admission into post-graduate programmes.

At the protest which was held in front of Nirman Bhawan, the students demanded that instead of increasing the course duration, the compulsory one year rural posting be either incorporated within the existing MBBS course structure or included as part of the PG curriculum.

"We are not against rural postings, but we want the one- year rural internship to be included as a part of our curriculum either during the MBBS course or at the post- graduate stage," said Dr Anirudh Lochan, national secretary of the Young Doctors Association of India.

Police had to use water cannon to disperse the protesters when they attempted to enter the premises to meet the Union Health Minister, Ghulam Nabi Azad.

Around 2,000 doctors from AIIMS, University College of Medical Sciences, Lady Hardinge Medical College, Vardhman Mahavir Medical College and Maulana Azad Medical College took part in the protest.

At around 3 P.M., the Health Secretary met some of the protesting students and assured them that their concerns would be looked into.
Source: BS

JEE COMMON COUNCELLING: Looks Unlikely this year

Speculation about whether there will be ‘common counselling’ for admission to the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and the National Institutes of Technology (NITs) this year has still not been put to rest. The possibility of whether a ‘common counselling’ can be ­implemented in 2014 was discussed at a meeting attended by representatives from the human resource development (HRD) ministry, the JEE Advanced Committee, IITs, NITs, the CBSE (which conducts JEE Main) and the National Informatics Centre (that develops the software for the counselling) last week. Sources in the HRD ministry told HT Education that a final call is yet to be taken on the issue. “During the meeting, the NIC experts said that the logic applied in the NIT counselling can be extended to the IITs for common counselling. However, some IIT professors pointed out some anamolies in the software developed by NIC. This is why there may not be common counselling this time but a final call on this is yet to be taken by the secretary, department of higher education. NIC has been asked to revert with a solution. There could be sequential counselling too, where the IITs conduct the first two rounds and NITs conduct the rest; or there could be a joint counselling, where both parties will be coordinating the efforts. The idea of common counselling is to reduce those vacancies where people tend to occupy two seats. There are cases of students who bag seats in not-so-popular courses at the IITs, and they also get seats in NITs in sought-after courses. Such students hold on to both seats and give up one only later, leaving vacant seats,” says an HRD ministry official.

Source: Hindustan Times

JEE 2013 : Some facts

 Not many would be as confident to crack the entrance exam for admissions to the coveted Indian Institute of Technology without the help of a coaching institute. According to an IIT-Delhi report, however, 52% candidates who qualified JEE (Advanced) 2013 took to self-study mode of preparation while 48% opted for coaching. With 61.4% candidates, Guwahati zone shows highest percentage of candidates who prepared on their own and qualified. Only 38.6% candidates here went to coaching classes.

Zone-wise distribution of qualified candidates' shows that in Kanpur, 54.8% study on their own and 45.2% went to coaching classes. In Roorkee zone, 55.1% candidates were self-tutored, while 44.9% went to coaching institutes. In the Bombay zone, 52.6% candidates got through on the strength of self-study and 47.4% visited coaching institutes. In Delhi zone, however, the percentage of students taking coaching classes was 52.9% while 47.1% resorted to self-study. The Madras zone saw lowest percentage (39.4) of candidates taking to self-study, while 60.6% candidates relied on coaching centres.

Though JEE officials said the data cannot be compared with previous year (due to change in the format), they assured that percentage of students attending coaching classes has gone down. In two previous years, most students who qualified JEE did join coaching centres,'' said a JEE chairman.

On the urban-rural segregation, the report states that 8% of total JEE qualified candidates come from villages and 16% belongs to towns. The remaining 75% are those living in cities. "Students in rural parts do not have enough resources to meet their ends but this doesn't mean that they are incapable,'' said another JEE official.

Occupation-wise, children of government employees (29.8%) topped the list of JEE qualified candidates. Candidates who belong to business families account for 17.4% of the total candidates while 10% candidates were children of those in private sector. Teaching and research contributes to 5.5% while 7.6% candidates come from agricultural background. 2.9%, 4.6% and 7.8% successful JEE candidates had parents from medical, engineering and public sector, respectively.

The report also proved that higher educational qualification of parents need not necessarily assure high results produced by children. Based on father's education, the report shows that 42.7% candidates who qualified are kids of graduate fathers. Only 27.9% candidates who cracked JEE came from families where the father is a postgraduate. While 13.3% were children of matriculate fathers, 2.6% candidates had illiterate fathers.
Source: TOI

My Viewpoint: Its easy to make it into headlines but the fact is majority of students while filling form tick self study just due to some unknown fear. Such studies are good for story telling fact is that its very hard to find an JEE entrant without coaching. Can't comment on whole nation but can bet that there is hardly a single guy in my city to do such in last 4-5 years (may be one or two taking advantage of Reservation as cut off are too low for them).

RED LETTER DAY for Manipal University

Professors at Manipal University Tuesday voiced happiness at alumnus Satya Nadella being named the new Microsoft chief and remembered him as a quiet student with a keen eye for detail.

His teacher at Manipal, Vinod remembered Nadella as a "sincere, quiet student in his college days who earned his degree in first class with distinction".

The university rejoiced at Nadella, who was part of the 1988 batch in Bachelor of Engineering in Electrical and Electronics, being named the Microsoft chief, terming it a great day for the university.

"Yes, it is a great day for Manipal University. Every single student, past and present will cherish this glorious moment. Satya's great achievement has done Manipal Institute of Technology and Manipal University proud," said Chancellor Ramdas M Pai.

"This is the biggest event for Manipal University. Over the last three months, when his name was shortlisted for the job, we have been hoping and praying that Satya would get the job. Today is a red letter day in the history of Manipal University," Pai said, according to a varsity statement.

School of Information Sciences director Harishchandra Hebbar, who taught digital electronics to Nadella, said: "As a student he had a keen eye for details. He would always want to know the how and why of everything that was being taught in the class. He never would take the next step without fully knowing the step he has already taken."

After completing his BE here at MIT, Nadella went to the US and completed his master's degree in computer science from the University of Wisconsin and a master's degree in business administration from the University of Chicago. He has been with Microsoft for 22 years.

Courtesy: The Hindu and Business Standard