As you may be aware, many schools follow the practice of starting class XI alongwith other classes in the month of April in the new academic session to utilize the period before summer vacation for instructional purposes. Academically this is a correct practice so thai the children may remain busy with meaningful activities. The schools admit students of class XI provisionally before the announcement of the result of class X Board examination and accordingly allow them the subject’s choice/stream as per their performance in pre-board exams and unit tests.

It is understood that some schools resort to practice of forcing students to change their subjects/streams in class XI after the class X results are declared and the students are often forced to change their subject combinations.

A case was filed in the Hon’ble High Court of Delhi, and the brief facts of the case are that in a particular schools, on account of wrong calculation of the grade, a particular combination of subjects were allotted to a student Subsequently the said student was asked to pursue some other combination of subject In order to avoid hardship to the students, on account of change of stream, certain guidelines were given to the schools, vis-a-vis the said student, which are produced below for compliance by all the schools affiliated to the CBSE for dealing with such instances:

(a)  Schools shall not claim any fee from the parent/student for the past period and adjust the fee already deposited by him towards the fee shall be payable for the next period

(b)  Schools shall make good the loss of classes in the Commerce stream (or other stream/subjects) suffered by the student, by giving him special coaching classes without burdening him/his parents with any additional fee for the same.

(c) Further. Schools shall bear the burden of all the expenses, to be incurred by the students/his parents in buying a second set of books and study materials for the allocated subject/stream and reimburse them on the basis of the bills produced by them.

(d)  Schools shall give the parent/student the benefit of his attendance by including the classes attended by him/her in the Non-Medical Science Stream with Computer or any other stream/subjects.

(e)  Schools shall take into consideration, the results of Unit Test-1 and Unit Test-2 taken by the student while carrying out an analysis of his results at the end of class XI. If considered necessary, a reasonable relaxation may also be given to the student to make up for the loss of academic session suffered by him/her in the Commerce stream or any other stream/subject in the current academic year.

(f)  To avoid any such occurrence in future, schools shall ensure that while allocating subject/streams to the students in the higher classes, their collective analysis sheets are scrutinized and tallied at two separate levels so that discrepancy, if any, is rectified in the process of cross checking.

In view of the above orders of the Hon’ble High Court, it is expected that due care be taken by all Heads of Institutions, while allocating subjects/streams to the candidates in class XI. In case, if any change of stream is necessitated, the above guidelines may be adhered to in letter and spirit.

As per circular dated April 9

For viewing the ICSE 2012 result:-

In the Message box, enter your index number in the following way:-

If your index number is T/4331/009 then type: ICSE T4331009

OR

For viewing the ISC 2012 result :-

In the Message box, enter your index number in the following way:-

If your index number is B/8531/009 then type: ISC B8531009

To get your result send the message on any of the following numbers: 51818, 56263, 58888, 5676750, 56388, 54242

The result will be displayed in the following format viz: SHASHANK TIWARI ENG-98,HIN-87,EED-67,HCG-95,MAT-98, SCI-90/CTA-100/SUPW-A,PCA

CBSE Science Exhibition

The Central Board of Secondary Education has been taking many initiatives to provide interactive, participatory, hands-on, innovative and creative learning experiences to students studying in its affiliated schools. One such initiative refers to the organisation of Science Exhibitions at Regional and National levels every year. The activity aims at providing a common platform to schools, teachers and students to give shape to their innovate ideas and learn from each other’s experiences. These exhibitions also intend to provide a medium for popularising Science and increase awareness among the stakeholders about close relationship between Science, Technology and Society. The main objectives of organising Science exhibitions can be summarised as:

• promoting interest in Science and Technology among younger generation.
• encouraging scientific and technological creativity among students and inculcating a sense of pride in their talent.
• providing exploratory experiences, encouraging creative thinking and promoting psychomotor skills among school students through self designed models or simple apparatus.
• encouraging problem solving approach and developing appropriate technologies, especially for rural areas and integrating scientific ideas with daily life situations.
• popularising Science and technology among masses and creating an awareness regarding its impact on socio-economic and sustainable development of the country.

Taking into consideration the enthusiastic response from participating schools in the past, it has again been decided to organise Science exhibitions for the year 2012. These exhibitions are likely to be organised in different parts of the country at Regional level in the month of July/August and at National Level in the month of September/October,2012.

The main theme and sub-themes for this year’s exhibition are:

Main Theme : Science , Society and Environment

Sub-themes: The six sub-themes are:

• Agriculture and Food Security
• Energy-Resources and Conservation
• Health
• Environmental Issues and Concerns
• Mathematics and Everyday life
• Disaster Management

The following key aspects of the exhibition may be kept in mind for participation:

(i)                 The participating school/team will have to bear all expenses related to participation in the event.

(ii)               The participating school can put up a maximum of two exhibits/projects/models

(iii)             A school team may be represented by a maximum of two students per exhibit and one escort Science Teacher.

(iv)             The participating teams will have to make their own lodging/boarding arrangements at the venue city of exhibition

(v)               The request for participation alongwith the enclosed registration form and fee is to be sent directly to the Respective Regional Officer and not to Headquarters Delhi.

(vi)             The schools in Delhi region may send it to the Regional officer, Central Board of Secondary Education, PS-1-2, Insitutional Area, I.P. Extension, Patparganj, Delhi-110 092

(vii)           The exhibit/model may be either

(a)        A working model

(b)     An investigation-based project

(viii)         The exhibit/project may include

• working model to explain a concept, principle or a process
• an indigenous design of a machine/device
• an innovative/inexpensive design or technique
• application of basic principles of Science/Technology
• Scheme/design of a device or machine to reduce production cost
• Investigation based study

(ix)             Every participating school will pay a participation fee of Rs.400/- in the form of a demand draft in favour of Regional Officer, CBSE payable at respective regional office city.

(x)               The last date for registration for participation in the event is June 15, 2012.

(xi)             The first stage of exhibition will be held at two/three different venues in every region.

(xii)           The selected best fifteen exhibits/ schools at every regional level venue will be eligible to participate in the National level exhibition.

(xiii)         The exhibits/projects will be assessed by the experts as per the following criteria:

• Students’ own creativity and imagination                                                  20%
• Originality and innovativeness in design of the exhibit/project                 15%
• Scientific thought/principle                                                                       15%
• Technical skill/workmanship/craftsmanship                                             15%
• Utility/educational value                                                                           15%
• Economic aspect, portability, durability                                                      10%
• Presentation -Explanation and demonstration                                            10%

(xiv)         The actual dates for the regional level exhibition will be communicated through the Regional officers to every school as well as through CBSE website www.cbse.nic.in by July 15,2012.

(xv)           Greater emphasis may be given to investigation-based innovative projects to kindle scientific method and scientific approach in the students.

(xvi)         A brief write-up about the main-theme and sub-themes is enclosed for reference. The participating teams may prepare the exhibits/projects on any one of the sub-themes satisfying one or more of the stated parameters.

(xvii) Attractive awards/cash prizes are given to exhibits/students who present the best twenty models at the national level.

The above information may be brought to the notice of all concerned, particularly the science faculty in the school and the students. The request for participation alongwith the enclosed registration form, registration fee and other details may be sent to respective Regional Officer before due date. For any other information in this regard, you may contact the Consultant at science.cbse@gmail.com

You may also send any specific suggestions or observations in this regard to the undersigned at the above e-mail address.

Guidelines for preparation of Exhibits and Models

Given below are number of ideas for designing the exhibits on different sub-themes in the context of the main theme. However, these ideas are only suggestive in nature. Participants are free to design exhibits based on other related ideas on the given sub-theme.

Sub Theme-1                   Agriculture and Food Security

Agriculture, directly or indirectly, has been the main source of livelihood for majority of Indian population. One of the greatest assets in rural areas could be an intelligent and effective use of emerging technologies such as biotechnology, microbiology, genetic engineering, etc. The agricultural activities that lead to food production are no longer a subject of classical farming only. The modern agriculture cannot sustain itself without the support of research work done by scientists. With the help of science and technology, we can enhance our agricultural knowledge to achieve food security to reduce hunger, malnutrition and poverty, and facilitate equitable, environmentally, socially and economically sustainable development.

The exhibits/models in this sub-theme may pertain to:

• Studies of climatic change on agriculture
• Managing crop yield due to climatic change arising from global warming
• Preservation and conservation of soil and judicious use of water
• Conventional biotechnology practices e.g., application of biotechnology, microbiology, genetic engineering and genomics to agriculture for improved and high yielding varieties
• Organic farming/organic fertilisers versus chemical fertilisers; biodynamic liquid manure/green manure
• Use of biotechnology for economically and ecologically sustainable biofuels
• Environmental friendly measures of pest control
• Application of biotechnology and genetic engineering in improving animal breeds and production of animal products that are used as food
• Innovative/inexpensive/improved/indigenous technologies/methods of storage/ preservation /conservation/transport of agricultural products and food materials
• Organic fertilizers versus chemical fertilizers
• Food production and demand of quality food and food security
• Nutrition education/healthy eating habits and food utilisation by body

Sub Theme-2                  Energy- Resources and Conservation

After food and water; energy is our most basic need. All activities require energy to perform. Energy is an important concern that differentiates the global rich and the global poor. All conventional sources of energy are exhaustible. At the current rate of consumption, known reserves of petroleum will be exhausted in about 35 years, natural gases in about 50 years and coal sometime within 200 years. The great concern about energy is not about diminishing supplies. It is rather than our current models of harnessing energy that are unsustainable because of environmental, economic, geographical and equity issues. One of the important and obvious way of redesigning system for harnessing energy is to develop and shift to clean and nonconventional energy resources which are either non exhaustible or renewable as solar energy, wind energy, hydroelectric power, geo-thermal energy, energy from biomass and biogas, ocean thermal energy, wave energy and energy from other emerging technologies.

This sub-theme is expected to make the children think of various ways and means for making efficient use of available energy resources and also new techniques/methods of using and conserving energy from both conventional and nonconventional sources.

The exhibits/models in this sub-theme may pertain to:

• Models of green building/environment building which harvest energy, water and materials
• Green roof technologies/roof mounted solar technologies such as solar water heater, solar lighting system
• Models/innovative designs of domestic hydroelectric generator
• Solar cooker/solar distiller/solar dryer for food processing/solar heated houses
• Studies of variation in sunshine intensity at a given place for developing indigenous method of its usage etc
• Projects for measuring availability of solar/wind energy in a given area
• Use of tidal waves/ocean currents/salinity gradient for generating electricity
• Energy from biomass such as seaweeds, human/animal wastes, keeping in view environmental concerns
• Improvised technologies for effective usage of bio-fuels
• Innovative designs of bio gas/bio mass plant
• Bio diesel from plant oils (obtained from canola, palm oil, micro algae oil, waste, vegetable oil etc)
• Low cost liquid fuel (bio-ethanol, bio methanol from cellulose biomass by improvising conversion techniques)
• Innovative designs of internal combustion engine which can function on various bio fuels
• Production of electrical energy from mechanical energy/nuclear resources

Sub theme-3                                      Health

Our health is continuously under the influence of both endogenous (within) and exogenous (around) environment and therefore a matter of great concern especially in the rapidly growing society to cope up with newer scientific and technological inventions. Our health is adversely affected due to many environmental hazards that lead to several kinds of infections in the body. With increasing population, demand for food, water, home, transport, energy etc are increasing causing tremendous pressure on our natural resources and thereby contributing to pollution of air, water and soil. The lifestyle including food and water we take, tendency for junk/ fast food, rest and exercise, habits and drugs and alcohol abuse is another challenge to our health.

The present sub-theme is proposed with the objectives: to bring awareness among the youth about health and factors affecting our health, to explore new scientific, technological and biomedical interventions in prevention and cure, to analyze the role of self and society in keeping our environment healthy in order to maintain good health and promote innovative ideas for better management.

The exhibits and models in this sub-theme may pertain to:

• Demonstration of health and differentiation from the state of ill health
• Sensitising people to be careful in health matters, explore the possibilities and make use of the facilities available
• Development of knowledge-base and understand new scientific, technological aids in bio­medical area
• Demonstration of known facts and research findings in different medical systems like Indian, Modern, Homeopath etc.
• Demonstration of lifestyle and relationship with good and bad health based on known facts and researches
• Need for appropriate measures for family welfare
• Need for developing low-cost nutritious food
• General awareness about occupational hazards and innovative techniques to overcome them
• General awareness about community medicine
• Simple technologies for developing diagnostics and environmental monitoring. Sub theme-4          Environmental Issues and Concerns

The spectacular industrial and economical development over the past few decades has led to the replacement of the communities of nature by man-made communities. Deforestation, overgrazing, indiscriminate mining, and tree-felling, faulty tillage practices etc. have led to severe soil erosion. Over irrigation and river-harvesting of agricultural lands has resulted into salinity of water, water logging and degradation. Over-use of tube wells has substantially lowered down the underground water table. Major current environmental issues include climate change, species extinction, pollution, environmental degradation, and resource depletion etc.

For humans to live sustainably, the Earth’s resources must be used at a rate at which they can be replenished. The main objective of this sub-theme is to make general public and children in particular aware with the current environmental issues and concerns for achieving sustainability to prevent the effect of environmental issues.

The models and exhibits in this sub-theme may pertain to:

• Environmental issues related with human activities such as agriculture, energy, fishing, forests, mining, shipping, paper, war, ocean deoxygenation, dead zone, paint etc.;
• Environmental issues with energy conservation, renewable energy, efficient energy use, renewable energy commercialization etc;
• Environmental controversies such as dam controversies, genetically modified organisms/food controversy, sealing, dioxin controversy, water fluoridation controversy etc.;
• Environmental disasters such as Bhopal disaster, oil spills, nuclear accidents etc.
• Climate change — global warming, greenhouse gases, fossil fuels, sea level rise, ocean acidification etc.;
• Issues related with environmental health such as air quality, asthma, electromagnetic radiations and fields, lead poisoning, indoor air quality, sick building syndrome etc;
• Water pollution — acid rain, marine pollution, Ocean dumping, eutrophication, marine debris, thermal pollution, algal boom, micro-plastics, etc;
• Air pollution — smog, ozone, particulate matter, sulphur oxide etc;
• Soil erosion, soil contamination and salination and Waste;

Mathematics and Everyday life

The important segment of mathematics– the ability to reason and think clearly, is extremely useful in our everyday life. Proofs and deductions are hallmarks of mathematics. The subject also deals with data, measurements and observations from science, mathematical models of natural phenomenon including human behaviour and social systems. Its domain is not molecules or cells but numbers, chance, forms, pattern and order, algorithms and change. As a science of abstract objects, mathematics relies on logic rather than on observation.

Mathematics gives an exactness in thinking and provides a quantitative approach. The special role of mathematics in education is a consequence of its universal applicability. In general, to solve practical problems we follow a set procedure involving steps related with defining variables; writing equations or inequalities; collecting data and organize into tables; making graphs and illustrations; and calculating probabilities.

To encourage and stimulate students’ interest in Mathematics, some of the mathematical principles being transacted at school stages with their applications have been indicated below.

The exhibits/models in this sub-theme may pertain to:

• Principles of sequence and series in several spheres of human activities viz, calculating the amount of money over certain period of time under given rate of simple interest or compound interest/ finding depreciated or increased value of a certain commodity over a period of time
• Determining expenditures needed for manufacturing water tank / rectangular box/cylindrical/cone- shaped objects of a certain material provided cost of material per square/cube/unit are known;
• Determining perimeter, area of a region bounded by polygons/the circumference and area of a circular region/surface area and volume of cube/cuboid/cylinder/ cone/sphere/hemisphere of solid when two basic solids are joined together;
• Finding the ratio of area of quantities of substances in the formation of compounds or mixtures;
• Designs of parking area for maximum utilization of space;
• Predicting the population of species over certain period of time under given constraints;
• Applications of linear programming in solving problems pertaining to manufacturing of goods/transport/diet issues
• Applications of mathematics in decorating home e.g. how many rolls of wallpaper/number of tiles are needed to cover the wall;\
• Using mathematics in cooking and nutrition/estimating number of calories and quantity of nutrients (carbohydrates, proteins, fats, minerals etc.) in a sampleportion of various food items;
• Establishing a mathematical relation by considering all possible parameters to have maximum profit in producing certain items by a factory;

Subtheme-6                                       Disaster Management

Disasters have significant relationship with natural resource management, poverty allevaiation and sustainable development. Various disasters can cause damage to human life, environment, infrastructure, lowering the quality of life, loss of different bio organisms, political instability and conflicts, demographic imbalance, unemployment etc.

Sub-theme-7

There is chaos and disorganisation in the event of any natural or manmade disaster. The objective of this sub-theme is to increase awareness of the dangers posed by disasters and to help children find measures for effective mitigation of those dangers.

The exhibits/ models in this sub-theme may pertain to:

• Better information and public address systems in the event of disaster to prevent chaos and confusion;
• Access of clean and safe drinking water in the event of disaster;
• Improvised/improved devices for effective communication between various emergency services-medical, police, military and other administrative bodies/committees;
• Various measures/models for planning, preparedness and coordination of different agencies in the even of disaster/community level preparedness for the various man-made disasters such as gas leakage, nuclear accidents, battery/bomb explosions, etc.;
• Use of geo-stationary satellites in providing information pertaining to meteorological processes;
• Technologies in forecasting and warning of cyclones, floods and storms;
• Innovative designs of flood alarm/flood forecasting and cyclone warning networks;
• Information management and early warning systems for flash floods;
• Studies of the impact of global warming on human health (spread of epidemic like dengue, malaria, yellow fever etc.;
• Designs and development of automatic weather recording devices etc.

Via Official Circular No.Acad-5/2012

City schools are flooded with Right to Education Act (RTE) queries after the recent Supreme Court judgement mandating all private schools to enforce the RTE Act and reserve 25 per cent quota in admissions for children from the economically weaker section (EWS).

Many EWS parents, armed with their white ration cards, are approaching private schools for admission, but are being turned back as the schools say they have not received any instructions from the government to implement the quota. The schools are most concerned that the state government, which is supposed to pay the fees of the EWS students, has not clarified how much the reimbursement will be.

Minister for primary education, Mr S. Shailajanath, was to initiate the process of consulting all stakeholders by holding a full-fledged meeting on RTE, but it has not materialised since the minister is busy touring his native district to take part in the ongoing Prajapatham programme. It is not so much the elite schools, which offer the IB, IGCSE, or CBSE and ICSE curriculum, at fees ranging from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 8 lakh, that are being besieged by parents. The most sought-after schools are the middle-level and lower-rung schools affiliated to the state board and located near slums and in by-lanes, which charge between Rs 15,000 and Rs 25,000 per annum.

Parents want to shift their children from badly run government schools to these modest private schools. The trend is to move children a notch higher so that they can avail of a better education under the quota scheme than they would on the strength of what their parents would normally afford. Parents also want to move their wards from government-run Telugu medium schools to private English medium schools.

The schools’ contention that the reservation for poor students would drain their resources was contested by the government promised to reimburse the money spend by them of these students.

The exam conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) is in its final lap, as from next year the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) will be the sole entrance exam for admissions to medical colleges in almost all the states, including Maharashtra.

This year 2,75,742 candidates had registered for the exam but only 2,57,960 candidates appeared. Of those who did appear, only 30,788 qualified for the AIPMT final exams. Girls just about edged the boys in the overall tally this year with 15,620 (out of 30,788) of them clearing the exam.

This exam is being conducted for the 15 per cent quota in government medical colleges. In Maharashtra the remaining seats will be filled through the MHT-CET exam slated for next month.

Fourteen innovation universities would be set up in the country during the 12th Five Year Plan, Union Minister of State for Planning, Science and Technology and Earth Sciences Ashwani Kumar said here Tuesday.

Addressing media here with Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Kumar said that he has asked the Haryana government to send a proposal to set up one such university in Haryana as it is already developing an Education City in Sonipat district.

Kumar was on a visit to Chandigarh Tuesday and he reviewed the programmes of Haryana and plan priorities of the state. The visit precedes the meeting of the Haryana government with the Planning Commission April 25 for the state’s annual plan discussion.

Kumar said that the education hub being set up by Haryana at Kundli, 50 km from New Delhi, would not only benefit Haryana but the whole of North India. He assured of central help for the education hub. (IANS)

• Top Colleges in India

The candidates who have opted Delhi Centre for NDA & NA Examination (1), 2012 to be held on 15-04-2012 and have been allotted the aforesaid venue may please note the above correction. The candidates of the venue who have already downloaded their E-Admit Card are advised to download fresh E-Admit Card from the UPSC website i.e. www.upsc.gov.in for appearing in examination at the allotted venue.

In a significant step, the Uttar Pradesh government has issued instructions to all schools – Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE), Uttar Pradesh Board and Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) – to ban sale of junk food within their premises and outside, an official said on Thursday.

A senior government official told the move was initiated by the Secondary Education Council, after it got instructions for the same from the Union Health and Family Planning Ministry.

In a letter addressed to principals of all schools, the Secretary of the UP Madhyamik Shiksha Parishad (Board of High School and Intermediate Education) asked to ban sale of all forms of junk food, carbonated cold drinks and high sugar containing food from their campuses, as these lead to a host of diseases at later stage of life, including diabetes, high blood pressure and piled up cholesterol levels.

The communique specifically mentioned the high trans-fat levels in foods sold in different forms like wafers, salted and fried items.

The official letter has encouraged school managements to promote healthy and nutritious food amongst school going kids.

The letter also warned strict action against the district inspector of schools (DIOS) of that area, if the orders were not implemented.

Subject Experts who have prepared the question papers have certified that the entire syllabus of Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry has been covered in each question paper set by dividing the syllabus of each subject into appropriate number of units and choosing equal number of questions from every unit. Further, in every set, each subject carries the same percentage of easy, medium and difficult questions. This ensures the same difficulty level of each set of question paper.

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) will conduct the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) for admission to the undergraduate courses while the National Board of Examination will conduct the postgraduate exams.

NEET is set to take-off from 2013-14 and the Union health ministry has informed the state governments that their existing reservation policies would not be disturbed under the proposed scheme and state-wise eligibility merit lists will be prepared.