Karnataka - Bangalore

Yet another CET controversy brewing

THE PROPOSED Common Entrance Test (CET) for postgraduate courses conducted by the State universities has kicked up a storm with many academics fearing it would jeopardise the autonomy of the universities. But the PGCET is on track with Higher Education Minister D.H. Shankaramurthy stressing that the proposal had received a positive response. Students, according to the Minister, had welcomed the entrance test, he told presspersons at the CET cell on Wednesday.

Yet, students' outfits such as the All India Democratic Students' Organisation (AIDSO) condemned the move as "disastrous," aimed at commercialising the PG courses.

The move, said AIDSO president M.N. Sriram, was against the time-tested norm of providing a majority of postgraduate seats for students under the jurisdiction of a particular university. Thousands of meritorious but financially weak students will be thrown out of the ambit of higher learning, he said.

Finishing school

The country's first Information Technology (IT)-Finishing School, launched on Wednesday by Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, has an ambitious objective: To produce postgraduates who are trained in soft skills and technical skills. And the route the school has taken for that is the 12-month post-graduate diploma in Software Programming.

The course is accredited at the professional level, with certification from the University of Mysore. Entrance-level assessment and module level assessment will be done by Merit Trac to evaluate the skills and knowledge of students to meet the industry standards.

The programme is divided into four sections: Foundation track, Tech-track, Project track and Internship track, each with a duration of three months. The Foundation track emphasises on communication, teamwork, business knowledge and problem-solving techniques. Tech-track will train the students in programming and technical knowledge. Students can specialise either in Java or .Net. The course content is updated every year. The project track has live projects based on actual case studies. In the Internship track, the students are placed in software firms.

Initiatives

A live show on radio urging listeners to call in with requests for saplings; a mobile van revving around town with saplings for distribution; intermittent messages on environment; and a batch of enthusiastic students on the ground to plant saplings at the city's Agara Lake off Sarjapur Road. The Garden City College, along with a popular radio station, could not have found a more novel way to push the quest for a greener city forward. The events were part of GCC's "Hasire Usiru" greener Bangalore campaign, that kicked off on the Environment Day. The campaign, according ot Dr. Joseph V.G., Chairman, Garden City Group of Institutions, will be a year-long affair to bring back greenery to the city.

RASHEED KAPPAN

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