Four-day school week ideal for kids?

Shortening the school week to four days has a positive impact on elementary school students’ academic performance in mathematics

The study, published in the journal Education, Finance and Policy in July, analysed the impact of a four-day school week on student achievement by comparing fourth-grade reading and fifth-grade math test scores from the Colorado Student Assessment Program (CSAP) for students who participated in a four-day school week, versus those who attended a traditional five-day school week.

Better math scores

The researchers found a four-day school week had a significant impact on math scores for fifth-grade students, while reading scores were not affected.

The study suggests there is little evidence that moving to a four-day week compromises student academic achievement, an important finding for US school districts seeking ways to cut costs without hampering student achievement. “What interested me about our results is they were completely opposite to what we anticipated,” said Mary Beth Walker, dean of the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State.

“We thought that for the younger kids, longer days on a shorter school week would hurt their academic performance because their attention spans are shorter. A longer weekend would give them the opportunity to forget what they had learned.”

Source | Asian Age | 1 September 2015

Many Psychology Findings Not as Strong as Claimed, Study Says

By BENEDICT CAREYAUG. 27, 2015

The past several years have been bruising ones for the credibility of the social sciences. A star social psychologist was caught fabricating data, leading to more than 50 retracted papers. A top journal published a study supporting the existence of ESP that was widely criticized. The journal Science pulled a political science paper on the effect of gay canvassers on voters’ behavior because of concerns about faked data.

Now, a painstaking yearslong effort to reproduce 100 studies published in three leading psychology journals has found that more than half of the findings did not hold up when retested. The analysis was done by research psychologists, many of whom volunteered their time to double-check what they considered important work. Their conclusions, reported Thursday in the journal Science, have confirmed the worst fears of scientists who have long worried that the field needed a strong correction.

The vetted studies were considered part of the core knowledge by which scientists understand the dynamics of personality, relationships, learning and memory. Therapists and educators rely on such findings to help guide decisions, and the fact that so many of the studies were called into question could sow doubt in the scientific underpinnings of their work.

Link for the full Article | http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/28/science/many-social-science-findings-not-as-strong-as-claimed-study-says.html?_r=0

Science centres to support research in all States

Zonal systems will be introduced: Union Minister

Union Government will set up science centres and zonal systems to support research in all States, said Union Minister of State, for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences, Y S Chowdary.

The Minister was speaking at the inauguration of a day-long symposium conducted by Dr. Reddy’s Institute of Life Sciences (DRILS), to foster industry academia ecosystem here on Saturday.

The Minister said that Indian academia’s output has been low even as he stressed the need to improve the quality of education with an aim to better knowledge and skill levels of youth.

DRILS was established in 2004 based on a partnership between University of Hyderabad, Dr Reddy laboratories Ltd and the State Government.

Mr. Chowdary said that both Andhra Pradesh and Telangana have to stress on research and development in the coming years.

Andhra Pradesh, under the leadership of N. Chandrababu Naidu has been focusing on preventive cure for chronic diseases as studies show that research in this direction aims at towards improvement in citizens’ health. Even in Telangana there is potential for such research, the Minister said.

‘KCR born with platinum spoon’

“While Mr. Naidu is a proved administrator, K Chandrashekar Rao was born with a platinum spoon and not a silver one as he got Hyderabad,” the Minister said, adding the Telangana Chief Minister has been working to set up incubation centres in the State.

At the meet, the Minister also unveiled a DRILS initiative titled innovate in India, an interactive web portal which makes the institute accessible to individuals, scholars, entrepreneurs and organizations. The portal is meant to support people who have innovative ideas and need a guide, a lab, or a mentor.

In a media briefing that followed the inauguration, G V Prasad, CEO of Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories said that DRILS will offer industry partners incubation facilities for drug discovery. The research at the institute, so far has been supported by union government and Dr Reddy’s labs. Now the institute is looking forward to partnering with 15 to 20 industries which are interested in research.

Major part of DRILS research has been in the field of metabolic disorder and immunology. DRILS would also be the only institute in the country to use zebra fish for drug screening.

Source | The Hindu | 30 August 2015

College where students get answers before exam

A college in Malad has started a unique practice to improve the performance of its students: it gives out answers of the questions they are going to test students on before the exam.

T S Bafana Junior College of Arts and Commerce, which recently concluded its first unit examinations for Class XI candidates, had many of its freshmen shocked at the manner in which they were assessed. They were merely tested for fill in the blanks, whereas the board rules that candidates must be quizzed on several multiple choice questions.

In fact, this paper had a copy of the list of answers before the exam started. When the test ended, the list matched the two question papers of eco nomics and organizations of commerce and management that students were assessed for on August 28. In all, of the 35 questions, 25 (of one mark each) matched word by word.

“We have not been giving out the answers before the exams. But there are merely three chapters and when we give practice tests, it is natural that some questions will be the same. What can we ask in the limited portion? Also, in most exams, it is obvious that some questions will be the same from the previous two years' papers,“ said principal Deepa Sharma.

Most students were seen walking out of the exam hall in about ten minutes, for most of them knew the answers. “Some teachers had given out a photocopy of expected questions with a list of answers below and we didn't even have to think before answering the paper,“ said an elated student.

Janseva Samiti founded this college with the motto of “women's empowerment“ in 1968. Currently , it is one of the largest colleges affiliated to the SNDT University . The allgirls college has 46 divisions with a total student population of approximately 8,000 students.

Many others claimed that teaching was very poor and most teachers never came to class. “The form 17, which has to be submitted to the board for registering for the class XII board examination is sold for close to Rs 2,500 to Rs 3,000, whereas it actually costs about Rs 150,“ claimed another student.

Source | Times of India | 1 September 2015

CCTV cam in school bus must: Rights panel

Taking cognizance of incidents of child sexual abuse on school buses, the Maharashtra State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (MSCPCR) has made guidelines for schools to ensure the safety of students during travel.

The commission on Monday passed an order recommending that an NOC be given to an international school in Pune after it was found that an 11-year-old student was repeatedly sexually assaulted by the school bus driver and attendant last year.

"The victim's father reported the matter to the principal and director of the school, but no cognizance was taken... the owner through the managing director said that the principal and director were suspended," said the order.

The commission's secretary, A N Tripathi, in the order said proper arrangements should be made by schools to ensure safe transport of children. "The Right to Education Act and rules prescribe detailed guidelines on the safety of children, including hiring of services for transporting children," said the order.

Among the other recommendations of the commission are: conducting police verification of the bus contractor, CCTV cameras on each bus that should be monitored by the school principal, and engaging lady attendants in case of girl students.

The commission has also recommended taking parent-teacher association (PTA) approvals. "Daily counselling for children in terms of behaviour of the attendant, conductor and driver towards them should be carried out and a report card should be prepared and placed before the PTAs in the meetings. Services of hiring buses should be finalized with the consent of the PTA," said Tripathi in the order.

There have been several incidents of child sexual abuse in Mumbai. Following these incidents, schools said most recommendations are already in place. "It is practically impossible to keep an eye on everyone during travel time, but we have already installed CCTVs and are also taking help from parents to help monitor routes. Workshops on sensitizing drivers and conductors and teaching students about good touch-bad touch, too, are held regularly," said the principal of a suburban school.

Most recommendations are also part of the state's school bus policy, but several points in it are disputed and hence not implemented.

Source | Times of India | 1 September 2015

Minority institutions can conduct CET: HC

In a reprieve for minority institutions across Maharashtra, the Bombay high court has allowed them to conduct their own common entrance test (CET) and process for admissions to medical and technical courses for 2015-16. A division bench of Justices Anoop Mohta and Amjad Sayed struck down orders by the Pravesh Niyantran Samiti, which refused permission to the institutions to conduct their own CETCAP for the current academic year.

The court orders came after the state conceded that it would take time to constitute the admission regulating authority and fee regulating authority under its new Maharashtra Unaided Private Professional Educational Institutions (Regulation of Admissions and Fees) Act, 2015.

“We see there is no reason now to delay or postpone the procedure for conducting private CETCAP , specifically for want of a full mechanism and machinery , under the provisions of the Act,“ the judges said, adding that the institutions could go back to the process adopted last year so that the careers of students are not affected. The HC clarified that its order was only for the current academic year.

The government's new law states that there will be a single CET for admissions to undergraduate and post-graduate courses in the state. The authorities had rejected an application by the association of private minority colleges to conduct their own CETCAP in January 2015. The state said that in July it had approved creation of posts for the CET Cell, Admissions Regulating Authority and Fee Regulating Authority . It had also appointed an officer as Commissioner of the State CET. But it had extended the term of the earlier authorities as the mechanism will take time. The state said that the institutions could go back to the earlier procedure or accept students provided by the government.

But the institutions said the state's suggestion was impractical. The government then conceded that it had no objection to the private minority institutions conducting their own CETCAP for this year.

Source | Times of India | 1 September 2015

Univ may exclude internal test scores in credit system

After four years of flip-flop on the weightage given to internal assessment scores, Mumbai University (MU) is toying with the idea of scrapping it and holding a term-end 100-mark exam in each of the two semesters in a year. If the proposal is accepted, students may not have internal exams from next year, at least in traditional courses.

The issue was discussed in the last academic council meeting for the current academic bodies on Monday , but no decision was taken. When the credit-based grading system was introduced in 2011, internal assessment was given a weightage of 40 marks out of 100. The weightage was reduced to 25 marks in 2014.

A principal said the use of internal assessment scores has been delaying results as the system is not in place. But others pointed out that MU has to make use of the best international practices in following the credit-based grading system. “It will be unfair to evaluate students from self-financed courses only on the basis of a written test and no project work,“ said a member.

The council also decided to follow uniform guidelines for internal assessment this year and to change the grading scale from the current 7 to 10.“Earlier PET scores were valid only for 3 years. Now, students can register for PhD any time with their scores,“ said Madhu Nair, dean of commerce.

Member Gautam Gawli's proposals to make MU infras tructure disabled-friendly and to introduce a course in dis ability studies were also ac cepted. The decision to extend Sardar Patel College of Engi neering's autonomy for the next five years was sanctioned by both the academic and man agement councils. It was also decided that skill development initiatives will be taken as part of NSS activities.

Even as the term for all the academic bodies came to an end on Monday , the state didn't release any notification an nouncing the next senate elec tions. While there is no clarity on how varsities in the state will function without the aca demic bodies, vice-chancellor Sanjay Deshmukh called for a final review meeting for both the councils on Monday .

Exams, which are sched uled to begin in October, may be hit with no board of exam ination in place. Members of the Yuva Sena boycotted the V-C's dinner held for al members on Monday after he allegedly failed to address stu dents' issues.

On Friday , education min ister Vinod Tawde had said the academic bodies will run only with nominated members til the Maharashtra Universities Act comes into force. “We wil try to pass the Act in December and universities can hold their senate elections in January.”

Source | Economic Times | 1 September 2015