KVS admission 2021: Know how to apply, important dates and other details

 Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan will start the online registrations for class I on April 1 from 10 am onwards. The schedule for KVS admissions is available on the official website kvsangathan.nic.in. Along with the schedule, KVS admission guidelines for the 2021-2022 session have also been released indicating details of the minimum age for admission and the complete procedure for admissions. 

KVS is allowing a 19-day window for registration. The last date to apply online for class I admissions in the 2021-2022 session is April 19 till 7 pm. 

Once the registration window is closed, KVS will release the provisional select and waitlist of registered candidates. The lists are released online at the official website as per schedule. From the select list, the admission of eligible candidates is done first for the RTE category, followed by the Service Priority Category (I & II), and finally for the shortfall of reservation quota. 

As per the official schedule, the first provisional list will be out on April 23. In case seats remain unfilled from the first list, then a second provisional list will also be declared on April 30. Likewise, if seats remain unfilled even after the release of the second list, then a third provisional list will be released by KVS on May 5. The provisional select list of candidates as per the priority service category for unreserved seats is to be declared from May 3 to 5 keeping the leftover reserved seats blocked. 

The extended date for the second notification for offline registrations is May 10, 2021. The second notification is for offline registrations for admission to be made under RTE provisions, SC/ST, and OBC-NCL in case a sufficient number of online applications are not received. Registrations in this category will end on May 13, 2021. The display of lists for admission will commence on May 15, 2021, and will end on May 20, 2021. 

For admission to class II and onward (except class XI), offline registrations will start from April 8, 2021. The last date to register offline for such admissions is April 15, 2021. On April 19, 2021, at 4 pm, the provisional select and waitlist of candidates eligible for admission to class II and onward (except class XI) will be declared. Admission to class II and onward (except Class XI) for the 2021-2022 session will be done from April 20 to 27, 2021. 

Parents must take note that the last date for admission to all classes from I to VIII is May 31, 2021. For existing KV students, registration for admission to Class XI will begin within ten days from the declaration of Class X results. For non-KV students, registrations for admission to Class XI will commence only after the admission of KV students in Class IX is over.

As per the guidelines, admissions to Class I to VIII may be granted without a school transfer certificate subject to fulfilment of eligibility criteria and given that the birth certificate is issued by a Government Body. It may be noted that proof of birth date will be required for verification at the time of online registrations. It may also be noted that the registrations are free of cost. 

For admission to Class I, admission is conducted as per reservations for RTE, SC, ST, OBC, and PWD categories. Only for admission to Class I, the procedure is conducted online while for the other classes, the admission is done offline. At first, one must register online for Class I admissions to generate the Login Code. Using the code, one must fill up the application form and upload scanned copies of the candidate’s photograph, birth certificate (age proof), EWS certificate (if applicable), etc. A valid mobile number & email ID must also be furnished. One must note down the Application Submission Code and the list of documents need to be submitted during admissions after submitting the online form. 

For admission under the Special Provisions category (except for the Single Girl Child category), incumbents have to submit online applications at first. Thereafter, one must contact the Principal of the concerned Kendriya Vidyalaya directly. One must have the Application Submission Code as well as all the specified documents for admission under this category. 

On the contrary, for admission under the Single Girl Child category, applications must be submitted online although there is no need to contact the Principal of the concerned Vidyalaya directly. It may be noted that twins/triplets are also eligible for admission under the Single Girl Child category as per KVS guidelines. However, for each sibling, the application form must be submitted separately. These individual applications must be linked using a linking code for admission under this category.

For admission to Class IX, an admission test is to be conducted in the subjects of Hindi, English, Maths, Science and Social Science. Aspirants are advised to refer to CBSE Sample Papers and NCERT solutions to prepare for the test. In addition, all candidates and their parents are requested to keep a close tab on the official website for any further updates and information regarding admission 2021. 

Source: Indian Express, 31/03/21

MTP law’s patriarchal bias

 On March 16, the Rajya Sabha passed the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Amendment Bill 2020 despite much opposition and calls to send the Bill to a Select Committee. The Lok Sabha had passed the bill last year. Some relevant objections in the Upper House included the lack of consultation with stakeholders, raised by Amee Yajnik of the Congress, lack of inclusion of transgender people within the MTP framework, raised by Fauzia Khan of the Nationalist Congress Party, the lack of emphasis on centring women’s autonomy, raised by Binoy Viswam of the CPI. The fact that medical boards would constitute violations of privacy, and cause inordinate delays in abortion access due to lack of specialists, and lack of time limits for decision-making, ambiguous representation of women, and the extensive procedural hurdles, were raised by Yajnik, Khan, Priyanka Chaturvedi of the Shiv Sena and P Wilson of the DMK. Unfortunately, the government did not pay heed to these objections.

Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare Harsh Vardhan insisted that the government had “held extensive consultation process with experts representing a range of stakeholders from central ministries and departments, state governments, NGOs, academic institutions, professional bodies and associations like the Federation of Obstetric and Gynaecological Societies of India, that is, FOGSI, Indian Medical Association, Indian Nursing Council, and, of course, the legal professionals also.” He also said that the Bill was cleared by an Ethics Committee and a “Group of Ministers headed by Shri Nitin Gadkariji, and there were very senior ministers in this, including Smriti Iraniji and many other female ministers also”. We also had consultations with the Law and Justice Ministry, he said. The minister emphasised that there are several models of abortion regulation globally, one of which includes abortion on request. However, abortion under the MTP Amendment Bill will not be allowed at the request of a pregnant person, but is conditional on authorisation by the doctor. This goes against the Supreme Court’s jurisprudence on reproductive autonomy and bodily integrity. Further, the Bill will allow for abortions without any upper gestation limit only for foetuses with “abnormalities”, thereby fostering the ableist rationale of the State. The Bill is also overwhelmingly cis-heteronormative, with only cisgender women being contemplated in it, and not persons with other gender identities.

The Bill calls for the mandatory setting up of Medical Boards in every state and Union Territory which rely on inconsistent criteria for approval of abortions. This could cause severe delays in the abortion process; people living in rural areas in large parts of the country could find these Boards inaccessible. Over the last year, concerns have been voiced by the disability rights movement, health rights and feminist groups, and other civil society groups on the regressive and impractical provisions of the Bill. Failure to carry out substantive consultations with communities actually affected by the law gives a telling picture of how the Central government has been drafting and enacting laws that are harmful to the people they affect the most.

One example of this is the Indian Agriculture Acts of 2020 (Farm Bills), whose enactment sparked one of the largest protests in the country’s recent history. The government claimed that it consulted farmers before passing the Farm Bills, with Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad claiming that “extensive consultations, training and outreach programmes (were) conducted on the Agriculture Laws with stakeholders” and that 92.42 lakh farmers had participated in webinars conducted by them. However, all these interactions with farmers’ groups took place only after promulgation of the Ordinances in June 2020. This meant, first, that no pre-drafting consultations took place, and, second, that any suggestions which may have emerged during subsequent consultations were not incorporated into the Bills.

The process of drafting and enacting laws in a democracy must necessarily involve consultations and deliberations with representatives from civil society and grassroots organisations, all of whom have a stake in the implementation of such laws through their lived experiences. The equating of “stakeholders” with elite groups of healthcare professionals, bureaucrats and politicians – as mentioned by the health minister – and the exclusion of important civil society actors and marginalised groups whose lives are likely to be substantially affected by the law raises questions over the consultative process. Passing laws without a robust pre-legislative, consultative and deliberative process often leads to aspersions being cast on the legitimacy of these laws, rendering them increasingly subject to constitutional challenges and judicial interventions.

In passing the MTP Amendment Bill, the State continues to control women’s reproductive and sexual rights while wielding the argument of “progress”. The narrow understanding of women’s rights, which underpins the legislation, serves to explain much of the hetero-patriarchal regulatory orientation of the law. The co-option of “women’s rights” in the rhetoric to promote the Bill is ironic, as its provisions continue to criminalise abortion, and perpetuate harmful stereotypes and stigma around reproduction, sexuality and motherhood. The persistent notion that women are “natural” mothers, as reiterated in the Rajya Sabha debates, furthers the paternalistic idea that women need hand holding in making decisions related to their sexual and reproductive rights.

Written by Dipika Jain

This article first appeared in the print edition on April 1, 2021 under the title ‘Against her choice’. The writer is professor, Jindal Global Law School

Source: Indian Express, 1/04/21

Quote of the Day March 31, 2021

 

“To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe.”
Anatole France

“महान वस्तुओं को प्राप्त करने के लिये, हमें सिर्फ कर्म ही नहीं करना चाहिये, बल्कि स्वप्न भी देखना चाहिये; सिर्फ योजना ही नहीं बनानी चाहिये, बल्कि विश्वास भी रखना चाहिये।”
एनाटोल फ्रांस

University of Dundee offers scholarship for Indian students

 The University of Dundee in collaboration with the British Council is offering the ‘Great scholarships’ 2021-22 for Indian students to study a full-time, on-campus, postgraduate course of value £10,000. The offer starts in September 2021. Interested and eligible candidates can apply for the scholarship by May 7.

The scholarship is given for the tuition fees. It offers international students who want to study at the UK university a one-year postgraduate course. It also encourages the students to apply and demonstrate an interest in the chosen subject, through examples of work or academic experience.

Eligibility criteria:

— Candidate is a passport holder from India;
— Candidate should have an offer to study a full time, on-campus, postgraduate taught programme at the University of Dundee, starting in September 2021;
— Candidate should have an international fee status, as verified by the University of Dundee

The ‘Great scholarship’ programme is offered across several postgraduate courses such as Anatomy / Forensic Anthropology / Forensic and Medical Art, Architecture and Urban Planning, Art and Design, Biological/Biomedical Sciences, Biomedical Engineering / Medical Imaging, Business (Accountancy / Economics / Finance / International Business), Civil Engineering / Structural Engineering, Computing / Applied Computing / Data Science / Data Engineering, Education, Electronic Engineering, Energy Petroleum and Mineral Law and Policy, English, Geography / Environmental Science, History, Law, Mathematics, Mechanical Engineering / Industrial Engineering, Nursing and Health Sciences, Philosophy, Physics, Politics, and International Relations, Psychology, Social Work.

The University of Dundee currently has 14 ‘Great scholarships’ available for the 2021-22 academic year for students from China (two), Egypt (one), Ghana (one), India (one), Indonesia (two), Kenya (one), Malaysia (two), Pakistan (two) and Thailand (two) for all subjects.

Source: Indian Express, 30/03/21

Indian education system must stop chasing ‘learning outcomes’

 In the present context, which seeks to demonstrate, measure and quantify learning, learning outcomes (LO) have become a fetish with policymakers and textbook developers, an idea popularised by large-scale assessment surveys, such as the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER), in India. LO essentially refers to grade-appropriate, basic competencies in numeracy and literacy, which schoolgoing children are supposed to acquire.

The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), the apex body responsible for making curriculum, syllabus and textbooks, has already come out with two documents listing learning outcomes at elementary and secondary stages, while the one for the higher secondary stage is underway. This is because the new National Education Policy 2020 underscores the importance of foundational skills as being central to a child’s schooling. State Councils of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) will be soon expected to toe the line. However, the government of Andhra Pradesh has already initiated the exercise. Besides deciding to convert all government schools from Classes I to X to English medium, the state education department was directed to prepare “mirror image” textbooks — with lessons printed in English and Telugu, side by side. This seems to be more of a mechanical exercise without any sound pedagogic rationale. A quick review of the new textbooks shows that they centre around LO and follow a didactic approach of essentially presenting information/facts that children are supposed to passively consume and memorise. Such books typically deny the agency of both the teacher and the student, making them subservient to the printed text. They are physically heavy but conceptually terse.

It was with great difficulty that National Curriculum Framework, prepared by NCERT in 2005, changed the form and nature of textbooks. Any change of government at the Centre or state level was/is usually followed by a change in textbooks, particularly history. Besides blatant misuse as a political tool, textbooks suffer from other limitations. They reproduce social inequalities by either omission of diverse social groups or their misrepresentation. The landmark Learning Without Burden (LWB) committee (1993) identified dense, poorly written and weakly conceptualised textbooks as being primarily responsible, in addition to unwieldy syllabi and rote-based exam system, for burdening children’s school lives. The NCF 2005, with its roots in LWB, redirected the meaning of quality education to curricular, pedagogic and assessment practices being followed inside the classrooms. It sought to connect the life of the child outside school with learning in the classroom.

Soon after, NCERT developed “exemplar/model” textbooks which were conceptually sound and used a variety of pedagogic techniques to bring in real-life issues in the book. The social science textbooks particularly acknowledged social conflicts which children experienced in their lives and helped make sense of them. They also gave fresh life to the meaning of learning which was no longer a one-way track of passing on information to children but became a process of constructing knowledge meaningfully by both the teacher and the student.

A few states took the lead and initiated the formation of state curricular frameworks, position papers and the development of textbooks. Undivided Andhra Pradesh was one of them. However, with the revision of the earlier written books, which were both pedagogically sound and collaboratively developed, it seems like the state is bent on undoing its own achievements.

There is no denying that textbooks, just like curricular frameworks, syllabus, and assessment practices, need to be revised periodically. However, textbooks tailored to measure the acquisition of LO on part of children is a self-defeating exercise. This singular focus on LO will take the teaching-learning processes away from the possibility of a meaningful co-construction of knowledge to a teacher teaching to the test. Since teachers’ own appraisal is contingent on children’s performance in these tests, they feel pressured to ensure that children know the basic minimum and somehow pass the test.

The choice is ours — whether we will allow testing to take precedence over learning or celebrate learning as a meaning-making exercise by both the teacher and the student.

Written by Disha Nawani

This article first appeared in the print edition on March 31, 2021 under the title ‘Testing over learning’. The writer is professor and dean, School of Education, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai

Source: Indian Express, 31/03/21

The ecological concerns around river-linking projects

 The controversy over the river-linking project is not new; it’s a part of a larger development versus ecology debate that India faces with every big project. But in an era of climate crisis, which has a multi-sectoral impact, addressing ecological concerns is crucial and ensure long-term safety and benefits.

This week, the Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh governments signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) to start work on the country’s first major project interlinking two rain-fed rivers, Ken and Betwa. The agreement was signed 18 years after the project was first conceived as a part of country’s programme to interlink rivers to provide water to areas facing scarcity. The project is expected to ensure drinking water to 6.2 million people and irrigate one million hectares of land in 13 districts across both states, the majority of which fall in the water-starved Bundelkhand region, which has seen back-to-back droughts in the last decade.

Experts have flagged two concerns. First, project proponents fail to take into account the fact that the water crisis is not just a natural one; it’s partly man-made. The region’s granite topography does not allow rainwater to seep in and recharge the groundwater table, but this problem has been aggravated by policies that support faulty cropping patterns, encourage groundwater exploitation, degrade the soil and hack away at forest cover. Second, the project may submerge 6,107 hectares of the old and biodiverse forests of the Panna Tiger Reserve and Ken Ghariyal Sanctuary. This can impact water availability, rainfall patterns and destroy local ecosystems. Instead, the government could have pushed for low-cost, local interventions such as renovating and building water harvesting systems, desilting reservoirs and lakes and working towards a change in cropping patterns.

The controversy over the river-linking project is not new; it’s a part of a larger development versus ecology debate that India faces with every big project. But in an era of climate crisis, which has a multi-sectoral impact, addressing ecological concerns is crucial and ensure long-term safety and benefits.

Source: Hindustan Times, 25/03/21

To tackle the water crisis, women’s leadership in water management is crucial

 A study conducted on water supply projects in Gujarat in 2000 showed that when women were included in technical and decision-making capacities, there was a marked improvement in the impact of projects.

Water scarcity has been consistently considered as one of the top five risks by business leaders in the annual global risk report of the World Economic Forum. According to the United Nations, over two billion people live in countries experiencing high water stress. India alone has 88 million people who lack access to safe water, placing the nation at the centre of this global problem. Eighty per cent of India’s freshwater is used in agriculture, making it a critical resource for the livelihoods of farmers and the country’s food security. Farmers rely heavily on groundwater through wells and tube-wells. The crisis created by large-scale groundwater extraction needs concerted and scaled-up water management efforts in rural India.The water problem runs deep, and to address it, it is crucial to identify and mobilise the right agents for change. Women constitute 37% of the agricultural workforce — with nearly 100 million involved in the sector. Several studies, as well as our institutional experience, have revealed that women spend twice the number of hours that men do, working on fields in the cropping season. With men increasingly migrating out of their villages, women are now working in farms alongside managing their homes — both of which need them to plan for and use water judiciously. Considering their high stakes in ensuring water security, women are well poised to champion change.

Women engage with the issue of water in different avatars — as farmers, panchayat members, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) workers and extension workers. This makes them well-suited to leading water management programmes. For instance, apart from their presence in agriculture, women have a significant representation in governance. At least 43% of elected representatives in local bodies such as panchayats, are women. Women’s participation in MGNREGS is high and stands at almost 55%.

They have also demonstrated their ability to mobilise funds from the government. In a project in West Bengal, women influenced the government to release MGNREGS funds to construct water supply structures that created an additional water potential of 7.4 billion litres and benefitted 35,000 women, Unicef’s work in India has also proved women’s prowess at mechanical work. In Jharkhand’s Lava panchayat, women formed a diverse group from across every panchayat to maintain 450 pumps. They even ran their village spare stores and met the domestic water needs of 130 villages. In this endeavour, they were more efficient and were able to resolve issues more quickly than their male counterparts.

A study conducted on water supply projects in Gujarat in 2000 showed that when women were included in technical and decision-making capacities, there was a marked improvement in the impact of projects. Women have also shown an eagerness to adopt new technologies, explore sustainable farming methods and spread awareness among their families, making them excellent potential water champions. A 2017 study, which explored the role of women farmers in achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals, reported that women-led collectives have driven changes in cropping practices, and demonstrated a bigger willingness to switch to organic inputs and grow climate-resilient crops that consume less water.

Women have been creating consistent ripples in India’s water security efforts — the time is right to leverage them as leaders of change. This heavily-invested, yet relatively unrecognised, demographic of women farmers are likely to power the next frontier of positive change. The idea that diverse leadership teams create better and more innovative outcomes is not new. Several organisations have deployed winning diversity programmes to deliver breakthrough business results, endear themselves to an increasingly conscious set of consumers and attract the best talent. With an already strong presence of driven and aware women in agriculture, the same principles can well be the key to accelerating India’s journey towards water security.

Sanjiv Mehta is chairman and managing director of Hindustan Unilever Limited

Source: Hindustan Times, 21/03/21