'If violence happens again...': K’taka minister warns CAA protesters

Bengaluru, Jun 29: The results of second pre-university and the Secondary School Leaving Certificate examination results will be out by July last week and August first week, Karnataka Primary and Secondary Education Minister S Suresh Kumar said on Monday.

Instead of giving general promotion to the 10th and 12th standard students as the Central Board of Secondary Education and other states have done, the Karnataka government decided to hold the examination defying the coronavirus scare.

"We are trying to get the SSLC results out by the first week of August.The PUC results will be out in the last week of July," the minister told reporters in Bengaluru.

Amid reports of schools increasing the school fees ignoring the government's direction, the minister said he has got reports that 1,150 schools have increased their fees of which action has been taken against 450 schools.

"We have directed all the schools not to increase the fees in view of the coronavirus scare.

It is a peculiar year.Humanity says no one should increase fees.

We have set up a helpline. If we come across such practices, we will initiate action," Kumar said.

He said an officer has been entrusted to look into the complaints against schools.

Speaking about online classes for kindergarten students, the minister said such classes are not allowed.

The schools can hold talks with parents twice a week about grooming their children.

Kumar said a decision on opening kindergarten schools will be taken after July 5.

He, however, conceded that most parents are unwilling to send their children to school.

The government is gathering the opinion of parents based on which a decision would be taken, he added.

Regarding education to students from Class one to Class 10, Kumar said the Centre has given guidelines, which will be followed.

The state has formed an expert committee to recommend guidelines on education to children from Class I to Class six.

"Once the committee report comes, we will formulate regulations," Kumar added.

Mysuru, Jan 2: Mysuru-based Karnataka State Open University is gearing up to offer courses online from this year onwards and a proposal in this connection will be placed before the University Grants Commission (UGC) this month, after approval from the board of management.

As of now, the university offers 31 courses, including undergraduate, postgraduate, and diploma programmes.

Vice-chancellor Vidyashankar S Said that the university will submit its proposal to the UGC soon.

“This is being done to make learning convenient and help students study their courses of choices from the comfort of their homes.”

After launching online admissions for courses, this is another step to go paperless and towards an e-campus, the V-C explained.

The university has also proposed to launch 12 new courses for 2020-21.

A proposal in this regard will be placed before the board for approval on Thursday and the same will be submitted to the UGC for its nod.

Prof. Vidyashankar said the these courses will be in addition to the 31 already available.

The new courses include LLM, MA in Education, BBA, BSc, BCA, diploma in Information Technology, postgraduate diploma in Information Technology, BSc in Information Technology, MSc in Information Technology, MSc in Botany, PG diploma in Banking and Insurance, MSc in Zoology, MA in Telugu, Executive MBA, and MSc in Food Sciences and Nutrition.

The new courses had been proposed based on students’ feedback and the trend.

The V-C said the admissions for the January cycle have begun and over 380 students had so far taken admissions online.

“We are hoping for good admissions this cycle and are expecting around 12,000 admissions,” he replied.

Kota, May 9: Karnataka Yakshagana Academy has come to the rescue of artists in distress due to cancellation of all Yakshagana festivals following coronavirus outbreak and clamping of lock-down.

The academy spends lakh of rupees every year from the money sanctioned to it on training new artists, performances and documentation. However, no such activity was undertaken due to COVID-19. Hence, the academy is discussing to transfer a large amount of money to Yakshagana artists as emergency aid, Academy President Prof M A Hegde said here.

In a statement issued here on Saturday, he said that along with this aid the donations by the public and Yakshagana admirers too could be given to the artists.