Five of seven students accused in a ragging case at the Government Polytechnic, Nattakom, surrendered before the deputy superintendent of police at Changanassery in Kottayam on December 19.

Eight first-year students of the polytechnic were reportedly subjected to brutal physical abuse and forced to consume liquor by a group of senior students on the night of December 2 at the men’s hostel of the college. Two of the victims were seriously injured and had to be hospitalised. 

Cases have been registered against the accused based on complaints by the two students, police said. Meanwhile, the state human rights commission has sought a report from the education ministry on the incident.

 

Tamil Nadu
QS stamp for VIT

The Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT) University, ranked among the country’s Top 5 private varsities in the EducationWorld India Private Universities Rankings 2016, which has campuses in Vellore and Chennai, is India’s first higher education institution accredited with a 4-star rating for excellence in teaching, innovation and employability by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS, estb.1990), the well-known London-based universities ranking agency.

QS regional director (Asia) Ashwin Fernandes presented a QS certificate to G. Viswanathan, founder chancellor of VIT University, in Delhi on December 16. “VIT was assessed in a rigorous rating process of over six months involving 52 indicators,” said Fernandes, speaking on the occasion. 

Viswanathan announced a plan to inaugurate new VIT campuses in Bhopal and Amaravati in July 2017. According to Viswanathan, VIT students published 2,390 research papers in 2014 — second highest among universities countrywide.

 

Gujarat
CBSE affiliation fraud

Four individuals associated with the Rajkot-based K.G. Dholakiya School, Modi School and St. Mary’s School have been arrested for allegedly recruiting “hundreds of students” by falsely claiming affiliation with the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE). This was announced by assistant police commissioner Harshad Mehta in Rajkot on December 8.

Parents filed a first information report with the police following media reports that these schools had falsely and fraudulently claimed affiliation with the Delhi-based CBSE to levy substantially higher tuition fees than charged by schools affiliated with the Gujarat Secondary Education Board.

According to Mehta, all three schools failed to produce any proof of CBSE affiliation and had forged some documents. 

 

Haryana
Initiatives for challenged youth

The state government is set to establish a first-of-its-type higher education institution for hearing and speech challenged youth in Karnal at a cost of Rs.20 crore to be shared equally by the Centre and the Haryana government. “This will be the first such college to be established in north India,” Haryana’s minister of state for social justice and empowerment Krishan Kumar said in an official statement issued in Chandigarh on December 7.

Similarly, a state government institute of skill development and employment generation will also be established under a Central scheme to generate employment opportunities for persons with disabilities, added Kumar. 

 

 Arunachal Pradesh
Absentee teachers suspended

The state government suspended 17 teaching and non-teaching staff of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan programme for being absent from duty for prolonged periods. According to a state government communique issued in Itanagar on December 5, some of them were reported to have not joined duty since the beginning of the current academic year. 

Deputy commissioner Kangki Darang has directed Kurung Kumey, district deputy director of school education, to conduct an inquiry against every suspended official individually, and submit a report.

 

Odisha
PE education mortality

Sagar Nahak, a class X student of the Kamagarh High School in the Aska block of Odisha’s Ganjam district, died soon after a routine physical education drill session, police said.

Sagar was performing physical drill exercises with his classmates within school premises when he suddenly fell unconscious, school headmaster Bala Krushna Lenka informed the media in Berhampur on December 3. He was taken to a nearby hospital at Balisira and referred to the community health centre in Aska where doctors pronounced him dead. 

“We have registered a case of unnatural death and started an inquiry into the incident. The exact cause of death will be revealed only after the post-mortem report is issued,” said Baleswar Gidhi, inspector in-charge of the Aska police station.
 

Paromita Sengupta with bureau inputs