Recruitment criteria for NCERT director to be changed

   Unable to find suitable candidates, the government is set to modify the recruitment criteria for the post of director of National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT).

   The premier educational body is currently headed by in-charge director Prof G Ravindra after the government failed to find a suitable candidate for the post.

    HRD Minister Kapil Sibal has favoured modification in the recruitment rules which state that a candidate needs to have at least ten years of experience as a professor, including five years of administrative experience.  HRD Ministry had advertised for the post last year.

   Though it got 72 applications, 46 were not eligible as they did  not have five years of administrative experience.

  The ministry has now written to the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) for relaxing the criteria of administrative experience.

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Recruitment criteria for NCERT director to be changed

   Unable to find suitable candidates, the government is set to modify the recruitment criteria for the post of director of National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT).

   The premier educational body is currently headed by in-charge director Prof G Ravindra after the government failed to find a suitable candidate for the post.

    HRD Minister Kapil Sibal has favoured modification in the recruitment rules which state that a candidate needs to have at least ten years of experience as a professor, including five years of administrative experience.  HRD Ministry had advertised for the post last year.

   Though it got 72 applications, 46 were not eligible as they did  not have five years of administrative experience.

  The ministry has now written to the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) for relaxing the criteria of administrative experience.

read more...

Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangthan has restored its earlier quota policy

           To ensure smooth admission for children of central government employees, the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangthan has restored its earlier quota policy under which the class strength would not be affected while accommodating students in reserved category.

            As per the restored system, reservation will be given to students over and above the existing strength of a class in a central school.
           According to this system, each class will have 40 seats. But another five students can be given admission under reserved category. The students given admission under reserved category will be above the normal strength, the Board of Governors of KVS has decided.
            “The reserved students will not eat away the seats for general category students. The reservation will be above the existing class strength,” a ministry official said.The KVS was following this quota system previously.
             But it was amended few months back bringing the quota seats
within the class strength.

read more...

Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangthan has restored its earlier quota policy

           To ensure smooth admission for children of central government employees, the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangthan has restored its earlier quota policy under which the class strength would not be affected while accommodating students in reserved category.

            As per the restored system, reservation will be given to students over and above the existing strength of a class in a central school.
           According to this system, each class will have 40 seats. But another five students can be given admission under reserved category. The students given admission under reserved category will be above the normal strength, the Board of Governors of KVS has decided.
            “The reserved students will not eat away the seats for general category students. The reservation will be above the existing class strength,” a ministry official said.The KVS was following this quota system previously.
             But it was amended few months back bringing the quota seats
within the class strength.

read more...

Ministry is planning to subsidize the interest rates on educational loans and intends to bring in down to as low as 4%

   The Ministry is planning to subsidize the interest rates on educational loans and intends to bring in down to as low as 4%. For the same, the Ministry is working on a refinance scheme.

  This would involve, setting up of a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) to refinance banks for giving educational loans at a rate of interest below thePLR. National Education Finance Corporate (NEFC) will have to be set up to refinance the banks.

 Impact:
   Banks have been witnessing defaults and non-payments on educational loans. This may change. Banks are set benefit on two counts- defaults should reduce because of low rate of interest charged to the borrower and even in case of defaults; banks will be able to cut their losses by virtue of subsidy provided by the government.

   It is intended that the rate of interest charged will be based on parent's income.

*Parents with income less than Rs 4.5 lakhs p.a. will be charged 4%

*Parents with income more than Rs 4.5 lakhs p.a. and requiring a loan of

less than Rs 12 lakhs will get it at 7%

*For loan amounts above Rs 12 lakhs, interest will be charged at 9%

Impact:
   The highest rate of interest to be charged under the proposed structure i.e. 9% is lower than the lowest rate currently charged by banks,which is in the range of 10%-12% in most instances. This will certainly
prove to be beneficial to students across the board.

Repayment period:
   The ministry intends to increase the loan repayment period to 6-12 years from the current 5-7 years.

Impact:
   This will reduce the pressure on the borrower by giving him/her greater amount of time for re-payment.

   The interest cost for the moratorium period will be paid by the government -So if the loan is for a period of 7 years, the interest for the first two years (study period) and one year moratorium (holiday period to find a job)will be paid by the government and for the balance 5 years, interest and principal will be paid by the borrower.

Impact:
   Typically interest rate on the education loan starts accumulating as soon as the course is over. Since interest during the moratorium period will be paid by the government, EMI for the borrower is set to fall. This will reduce pressure on his/her cash flows.


   This is a proposal which has been submitted to the Planning Commission and has been discussed with them too.

   The Planning Commission is currently looking into the proposal of setting up National Education Finance Corporation (NEFC) to refinance banks. Based on the feedback received, the ministry will prepare a formal note which will be submitted to the Cabinet for approval.

   If this proposal is approved by the Cabinet, educational loans will certainly be accessible to more number of students. 'Financial issues' will hopefully not deprive a student from pursuing higher education.

SOURCE - ECONOMIC TIMES

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Ministry is planning to subsidize the interest rates on educational loans and intends to bring in down to as low as 4%

   The Ministry is planning to subsidize the interest rates on educational loans and intends to bring in down to as low as 4%. For the same, the Ministry is working on a refinance scheme.

  This would involve, setting up of a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) to refinance banks for giving educational loans at a rate of interest below thePLR. National Education Finance Corporate (NEFC) will have to be set up to refinance the banks.

 Impact:
   Banks have been witnessing defaults and non-payments on educational loans. This may change. Banks are set benefit on two counts- defaults should reduce because of low rate of interest charged to the borrower and even in case of defaults; banks will be able to cut their losses by virtue of subsidy provided by the government.

   It is intended that the rate of interest charged will be based on parent's income.

*Parents with income less than Rs 4.5 lakhs p.a. will be charged 4%

*Parents with income more than Rs 4.5 lakhs p.a. and requiring a loan of

less than Rs 12 lakhs will get it at 7%

*For loan amounts above Rs 12 lakhs, interest will be charged at 9%

Impact:
   The highest rate of interest to be charged under the proposed structure i.e. 9% is lower than the lowest rate currently charged by banks,which is in the range of 10%-12% in most instances. This will certainly
prove to be beneficial to students across the board.

Repayment period:
   The ministry intends to increase the loan repayment period to 6-12 years from the current 5-7 years.

Impact:
   This will reduce the pressure on the borrower by giving him/her greater amount of time for re-payment.

   The interest cost for the moratorium period will be paid by the government -So if the loan is for a period of 7 years, the interest for the first two years (study period) and one year moratorium (holiday period to find a job)will be paid by the government and for the balance 5 years, interest and principal will be paid by the borrower.

Impact:
   Typically interest rate on the education loan starts accumulating as soon as the course is over. Since interest during the moratorium period will be paid by the government, EMI for the borrower is set to fall. This will reduce pressure on his/her cash flows.


   This is a proposal which has been submitted to the Planning Commission and has been discussed with them too.

   The Planning Commission is currently looking into the proposal of setting up National Education Finance Corporation (NEFC) to refinance banks. Based on the feedback received, the ministry will prepare a formal note which will be submitted to the Cabinet for approval.

   If this proposal is approved by the Cabinet, educational loans will certainly be accessible to more number of students. 'Financial issues' will hopefully not deprive a student from pursuing higher education.

SOURCE - ECONOMIC TIMES

read more...