The State Education Ministers’ Conference

Press Information Bureau  Government of India
Ministry of Human Resource Development 
05-June-2012 19:59 IST 
 
The State Education Ministers’ Conference : Summary Record of Discussions  The Conference of State & UT Education Ministers’ was held on 5th June 2012 with Shri Kapil Sibal, Minister for Human Resource  development,Communications and IT, Government of India in the Chair. Shri E. Ahamed, Minister of State for Human Resource Development, 20 Ministers of Education representing various State Governments and Union Territories, Smt. Anshu Vaish, Secretary, Department of School Education & Literacy, Shri Ashok Thakur,Secretary, Higher Education, Prof. Sanjay G. Dhande, Director, IIT-Kanpur, Prof. Damodar Acharya, Director, IIT-Kharagpur, Prof. Gautam Barua, Director, IIT-Guwahati, heads of autonomous institutions, and senior officials of the Central and State Governments were present. 

In his opening remarks, Shri Kapil Sibal, Minister for Human Resource Development (HRD) emphasized the centrality of State Governments both in policy formulation as also in their effective implementation. The HRD Minister recalled the cooperation extended by the State Governments in the education sector during the last three years and thanked all the State Education Ministers for the same. He stated that Education being a Concurrent subject, consultations and continuous dialogue with the States becomes crucial in a federating structure. These interactions have been extremely useful in shaping the initiatives and policies of the Ministry, ranging from the Right to Education, continuous and Comprehensive evaluation, reforms in higher education
etc.

At the outset the Minutes of the State Education Ministers Conference held on 22nd February 2012 were confirmed and the Action Taken Report was noted. Thereafter the following issues were deliberated.

1. A presentation on the reforms proposed in the entrance examinations for admission to engineering institutions was made by Prof Sanjay G. Dhande, Director, IIT Kanpur. The process adopted in consulting various stakeholders and the details of the decision arrived at the meeting of the Joint Council of IITs, NITs and IIITs in its meeting on 28.5.2012 was explained in detail. The percentile normalisation process and the modalities for organisation of the common test were explained by Directors of IIT-Guwahati, Prof Gautam Barua and
IIT-Kharagpur, Prof Damodar Acharya. The representative from Maharashtra stated that a consultation with various stakeholders had been organised by the State Government, where the overwhelming opinion was in support of the common test. The Minister from Gujarat stated that they have written to the Central
Government supporting the common test. It was explained that States would have the freedom to join in the common examination system and have the autonomy to determine their own relative weightages to normalized Class XII Board marks, performance in JEE-MAIN and JEE-ADVANCED. 

On queries raised by States, it was clarified that the Academic Body to be constituted for the JEE-MAIN test would have representation from States in an appropriate manner. It was also clarified that where the State intends to join in the common test for admission to engineering institutions in the State, the exam papers would be also available in the regional language of the State in addition to English and Hindi. On a query raised on the syllabus for the JEE-MAIN, it was clarified that the Council of all Boards of Secondary Education had, in 2010, adopted a core curriculum in Sciences and Maths and the examination would be based on the core curriculum so adopted.  After detailed deliberations, the proposal for a common examination process for admission to engineering programmes was supported unanimously. The States were of the opinion that IITs should also adopt the same format as other central educational institutions in the longer term. The States were requested to
convey their decision on the year of joining in the common admission process and the relative weightages to normalized Class XII Board marks, performance in JEE-MAIN and JEE-ADVANCED by 30th June to enable preparations to be made accordingly.

2. A presentation was made by the Shri R.D. Sahay, Joint Secretary, on the draft Bill for establishment of IIITs and the implementation of the Scheme for IIITs on public-private partnership mode. The draft Bill was discussed in detail and States unanimously supported the Bill. There was a demand from States that the Bill should be moved at the earliest for Parliamentary approval. It was informed that the Central Government intends to introduce the Bill in the Monsoon Session of Parliament. The Scheme for establishment of IIITs was
discussed in detail and various suggestions were offered by the States. On a query from some States, it was clarified that the States were expected to provide land free of cost under the Scheme. A suggestion was made by the Minister of Rajasthan that the private partner need not necessarily be from industry. A suggestion was made by the Minister of Bihar for allowing State or Central PSUs to be accepted as industry partners. It was agreed that the following modifications to the Scheme could be considered:-

(i) To allow Central and State Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) to be accepted as industry partners for establishment of IIITs; and 
(ii) Giving States the flexibility to bring in one or more industry partners
instead of limiting the no of partners to three.

3. Smt. Archana Chitnis, Minister of Education Madhya Pradesh presented the Report of the Group of Ministers on the “Concept and Frame work of the Community College Scheme” in the Conference. The Report was unanimously accepted by the States and UTs. While welcoming the setting up of Community Colleges, the State Education Ministers agreed that the concept of Community Colleges will be paradigm shift leading to skill development and energisation of the community and the youth will be educated not only for taking employment,
but more importantly for becoming self-employed. It was decided to start 200 Community Colleges on a pilot basis in 2012-13 and then scale up gradually. The States were requested to identify local skill requirements linked to local needs which could form the basis of opening community colleges and forward proposals to the Central Government by June 2012.

4. A presentation was made by Financial Advisor on the recommendations of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) for adoption of accounting standards for educational institutions. An accounting system that presents a true and correct picture of the state of affairs of an educational institution is an important requirement for transparency and accountability besides assisting in prevention of malpractices. Educational institutions are set up as trusts or societies and adopt different accounting systems. Adopting a common
accounting standard would assist States in evaluating the expenditure of schools and estimate the reimbursement to be provided to private schools under RTE Act. The adoption of common accounting standards by educational institutions was endorsed unanimously. While States may consider adoption of the accounting standards in the school system according to their convenience,the adoption of these standards in the higher education sector through instructions issued by the concerned regulatory authorities was supported. It was also
decided that the accounting formats prepared by ICAI be circulated to all States and States would revert on these formats at the earliest. States would also be supported for capacity building in implementation.

5. A Presentation was made by Dr. Amarjit Singh, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Human Resource Development on Revised Centrally Sponsored Scheme on Teacher Education. In the presentation revised guidelines pertaining to financial sharing between Centre and States, provisions for strengthening of SCERTs, Colleges of Teacher Education, Institutes of Advanced Studies in Education, DIETs, establishment of Block Institutes of Teachers Education (BITEs) were explained in detail. The States were requested to submit proposals under the scheme for strengthening teacher education. They were requested to fill up vacancies in the teacher education cadre, provide in their respective budgets to meet the State share for the scheme, strengthen management of teacher
education institutes, increase the use of ICT, strengthen mechanisms for ensuring quality civil works, grant more autonomy to the teacher education institutions and strengthen monitoring mechanisms.

6. A presentation on Two Years of RTE-SSA was made by Shri Pramod Tiwari, Director, School Education. The presentation gave an overview of the progress made by the States in regard to the implementation of Right to Education Act – Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and the areas of concern were highlighted. The issues
related to availability of funds, construction of buildings, PTR norms, teaching hours, etc. were discussed at length. There was unanimous view that all these concerns are genuine and need to be addressed at various levels in order to facilitate the implementation of RTE Act by the States. The State Education Ministers also raised the issue of funding of reimbursement of cost of education of 25% children admitted to private schools under Section 12 of RTE Act

7. Discussions were also held on UGC Regulations on Prevention of Discrimination and Establishment of Ombudsman, setting up of Model Schools under Public Private Partnership and Saakshar Bharat. It was decided to circulate the UGC Regulations to States for their comments. 
 
Source | www.pib.nic.in

Get Ready to Fail by Scott Edinger

You will fail. It's inevitable, so you might as well begin preparing for it now. The failure may be small, like, say, making a mistake on a client engagement. Or it may be quite grand, like losing a job you valued. How you handle that failure can raise or lower the risks of failing again — and shape your legacy as a leader.
Some people handle these setbacks well. Others not so well. In my work, I've observed several common themes among those leaders who tend to cope particularly effectively with the inescapable.
Acknowledge the failure and put it in perspective. You can't begin to bounce back from a mistake if you don't admit you've made it. As obvious as it sounds, it's clearly not always easy to do. Research shows that owning up to their mistakes is the key factor separating those who handle failure well from those who don't. Those who were derailed perseverated and didn't talk to others about it. They made little attempt to rectify the consequences. Those who weren't derailed did the opposite: They admitted their mistakes, accepted responsibility, and then took steps to fix the problem. And afterwards, they proceeded to forget about it and move on.
Look for causes, not blame. If you've caused a problem, the good news is that you have control over that cause. By focusing on finding the cause(s), rather than assigning blame (with all the value judgments that go with that), you take control and move to prevent similar failures from happening again. Thinking in terms of causes rather than blame is similar to adopting what Carol Dweck describes as a "growth-oriented" rather than a "fixed" mind-set. A fixed mind-set tends to leave us helpless and ready to wilt in the face of a challenge. A growth mind-set puts us in a position to press on toward success.
Before you wrack your brain to think up an appropriate response, take a break. Get away from the task at hand for a while and let your brain refocus. None of us is designed to work 24/7, but in the wake of failure, it's often hard to stop thinking about what's happened. As counter-intuitive as it sounds, this is probably the last thing you should do. Engage in other pursuits. Spend time with loved ones, read, or simply get some rest. Physical activity is a plus (we're all familiar with the effects of endorphins on brain activity). It doesn't matter how long of a break you take: five minutes, five hours, five days. The point is to let your mind wander. You'll be amazed at what you come up with.
Get some help. Feeling down is normal. Prolonged periods of depression and despair are not. If you find you can't get into that growth-oriented mind-set no matter how much of a break you take, find some way to express your feelings in the company of someone you trust. That could be a friend, a colleague, a mentor, or a therapist. There's no shame in seeking help when you've suffered a setback. And therapy no longer carries the stigma of being damaged that it used to. To prove that, I'll admit here that I've gone to therapy at times in my life when I've felt particularly down, and it has helped immensely. See, no stigma.
Refocus your efforts and take action. Nothing will make you feel quite as good as taking action and finding even a modicum of success in that action. It may take some time to reach that success, but you certainly won't have any until you start trying. One of the ways we feel better is to exert influence and control over a situation, and creating a plan of the actions we intend to take is a surefire way to start feeling that control. Create your plan and get specific about what you'll do to reach your new goals. While you can't change what's happened, you have options for the future, and as you refocus your efforts, think about what would be best from this point forward.
No matter how you dice it, failing is a drag, and none of us likes it. Yet we all have to face it sometime. If you prepare yourself, and know how you will deal with it when you do fail, you'll be able to bounce back that much faster.

The Clearest Path to a Career That's Right for You

Nothing in career strategy is more important than picking the career field that's right for you. Get that right, and you may be headed to happiness and fulfillment in your work.
The most straightforward path to that field is to build directly on your capabilities. A great deal of research shows that people who work in areas where they're especially strong accomplish a lot and enjoy the work. By building on your strengths, you'll find the right opportunities. Employers and investors will be more likely to bet on you if they think you're up to the challenge — if you really can help them accomplish their goals.
Guide your career by consciously building on your capabilities. Here are three ways to do that:
1. Recognize your core capabilities. The first step in thinking about a capability-driven career is to understand what to build on. Begin with a self-appraisal. Look for distinctive talents, skills, and knowledge that will make you highly competitive for certain lines of work.
I'll illustrate this idea with a computer solutions sales manager. His list might include understanding customers, meeting information needs with computer solutions, coaching junior salesmen, and communicating well verbally. These characteristics are certainly important for that field of work, but they're too general. They're similar to what other sales managers might say about themselves.
A more specific list would be a stronger career guide. For example, go beyond "meeting customer information needs with computer solutions" by noting your deep knowledge of how to do that in a specific industry, like retail, or your experience with a particular computer solution technology, like integrating iPhone functions with a company website. Don't just jot down "understanding customers," but also describe your talent for imagining customer problems and needs before the customers even recognize them.
2. Build targeted capabilities over time. Once you've identified the talents and capabilities you already have, consider what you need for career growth. Your target capability set can be expertise in a field (like the computer example above) or in a function (like financial analysis or human resources management).
How do you build your target capability? Some steps are obvious. You might enroll in a graduate degree program in that area or achieve a qualification certificate. You certainly would work in that area. You might try to re-craft your job to shift the content of your work in your target direction.
Other steps are more complicated and can raise dilemmas. You'd be cautious about accepting an otherwise attractive transfer, promotion, or a new job offer if it didn't build capabilities in your target area. If you were proactively looking for a new position, you'd focus your search on roles where you'd grow your target skills rather than on the possibilities that seem the easiest.
In saying this, I'm certainly not arguing against broadening assignments. They can be critical parts of personal development. If an attractive broadening assignment appears, do two things: Think through how that assignment can lead back to opportunities in your target discipline, and if that's hard to envision, ask yourself whether your fundamental strategy is still right for you.
3. Add new capabilities to shift direction. If you discover that the skills you have and the direction you're headed isn't your ideal path, you may wish to change fields. In this case, you'll need a different personal value proposition, and it will require new skills and knowledge.
When making this kind of switch, people sometimes abandon their existing capability base. That's an option, but it often requires a step downward, and the ultimate result is uncertain. Unless you're extremely dissatisfied with where you are, the simpler path is to leverage what you know to find something new. Take the perspective of an employer or investor in a new field or function, and imagine what you'd need to add to persuade them to bet on you.
People may know exactly what new direction to pursue and what preparations would help them get there. More typically, their goal isn't that clear, and they're trying some things out. A good example of this was a physician who tired of his clinical practice and wanted a leadership role. He didn't have a clear strategy in mind, but he took evening classes to get his master's degree in public health and prepared the foundation that allowed him to transition into management.
Career development through capability growth is the most direct path to a career that's right for you. How much is your career path building on your base of knowledge and skills?

source : HBR.org

 by Bill Barnett