One recruitment test to hire teachers next year

Teacher Eligibility and Selection Test (TEST), a single recruitment test, will be conducted for appointment of teachers from next year.At present, candidates have to appear for the DSC teacher recruitment exam and the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) separately to secure teaching jobs in government schools.

Releasing the results of DSC-2012 at the Secretariat on Sunday, the minister for secondary education, Mr K.Parthasaradhy, said the new test will save lakhs of candidates from appearing for multiple tests for the same posts. 

“We have released only the DSC written test results now. The final merit list will be prepared after the announcement of TET results soon as 20 per cent weightage has to be given for DSC marks. The merit list will be sent to the respective district collectors,” the minister said.

Appointment letters for nearly 30,000 selected candidates will be issued in a month as directed by the CM recently, he said. The government has notified 21,343 posts under DSC for which over 3 lakh candidates have applied.

The state government also conducted a written test to fill 7,100 posts in Centre-sponsored model schools coming up in all mandals next year that offer CBSE syllabus in English medium from Class VIII to XII in residential schools. Nearly 95,000 candidates have applied for these posts.
Two exams to make way for one TEST At present, teachers have to write DSC and TET separately to secure teaching jobs This will be replaced with TEST from next year

US to introduce new visa processing system

The US Consulate will be introducing new visa processing system from September 26 to streamline appointment scheduling, simplify fee payment and provide new delivery system across India through new website ‘www.ustraveldocs.com/in’.

The website, available in English and Hindi, will answer applicants’ queries on how to apply for a U.S. visa. Applicants will be able to fill the forms, find out what documents are required and pay visa application fees. They can also schedule an appointment for biometric collection and an interview at a U.S. Embassy or Consulate. Application fees can be paid through electronic fund transfer (EFT) or with their mobile phones. They can also pay cash at more than 1,800 Axis bank branches.

Applicants can contact the consulate via phone, email or online chat. The call centre employees will answer questions in Hindi, English, Punjabi, Gujarati, Tamil, and Telugu. Appointments can be scheduled either through the new website or by a dedicated call centre (91-120) 660-2222 or (91-22) 6720 -9400. “We are offering appointments by phone for the first time. The new global appointment scheduling system will offer group and expedited appointments,” Minister Counsellor for Consular Affairs, Julia Stanley, told presspersons here on Thursday.

The upcoming system would allow bulk purchases of fee receipts, an important benefit for companies and travel agents. Within one hour of payment, the applicants would receive an SMS letting them know that their receipt had been activated and that they could proceed with scheduling their appointments.

Ms. Julia Stanley said that one important difference from the current system was that first-time applicants would need to schedule two appointments -- one for fingerprint collection and another for a consular interview. Fingerprints would be collected at an offsite facilitation centre (OFC) prior to the visa interview at the U.S. Embassy or Consulate.

Applicants who would be renewing their visas would probably be able to skip this step. Under the new system, passports, visas, immigrant visa packets and other documents would be delivered to 33 document pick-up locations across the country within a week at no charge. Applicants would be asked to choose a delivery location when they schedule their appointments. When their documents were ready for pick-up, they would be notified via email or SMS.

However, visa application fees would remain the same worldwide. An American consular officer would still conduct the interview at the Embassy or Consulate; and adjudication standards had not changed. For more information, visit www.ustraveldocs.com/in or Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/usconsulategeneralhyderabad.

State agrees to pay full feebie' for the poor

Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy announced the new fee reimbursement policy for engineering courses for this academic year on Thursday. Other than reimbursing the total fees for all eligible students studying in colleges charging `35,000, the government will also reimburse the entire fees for certain categories of students irrespective of the amounts charged by the managements.

These categories are: ¦ All SC and ST students.

¦ BPL students who have pursued Intermediate courses in government colleges or in private colleges with financial aid from the government.

¦ BPL students who secured below-10,000 ranks in Eamcet.

The policy also laid emphasis on reining in private colleges from selling management quota seats and the government has made it mandatory for managements to fill their quota online.

For 2012-2013, the Admission and Fee Regulatory Committee has fixed `35,000 as the fee in 604 colleges with combined seat strength of 1,92,311. In 85 colleges, the fees will vary from `52,000 to `1,05,000 for 33,243 seats.

The fee reimbursement scheme applies to students who take admission in the 70 per cent convener quota.
All students whose annual family income is below `1 lakh (the limit for SC and ST students is `2 lakh) are eligible for the scheme. Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy on Thursday said the state government would incur additional expenditures of `100 crore because of changes in the fee reimbursement policy.

Though there has been a delay in counselling as a result of which the academic year could not start, the government has made use of this opportunity to streamline the scheme and prevent sale of management quota seats, Mr Kiran Kumar Reddy pointed out.

He also dismissed the contentions that the state government had been targeting colleges which had demanded higher fees. Scheme has been streamlined The state government has made use of this opportunity to streamline the fee reimbursement scheme and prevent sale of management quota seats, said the CM

SSC 2012 Grading System

Click Here to check the Result

The Grading Process is given subject wise for each and every subject based on grace points at the final list .Grades such as A1, A2,B1,B2,C1,C2,D1,D2,E/Fail . Total of 9 Grades , and the Points from 3-10 Points for each grade .There are no points for failure/failed candidates .The Total points are taken and added and then it is divided with number of subjects and the results will be given in points and thus it was the final points for the students and he can have a grade. 10th class results 2012 grades are given below


Marks Range For Total: 
A1 (GPA - 10): 550 - 600               A2 (GPA - 9): 499 - 549
B1 (GPA - 8): 448 - 498                 B2 (GPA - 7): 397 - 447
C1 (GPA - 6): 346 - 396                 C2 (GPA - 5): 295 - 345
D1 (GPA - 4): 245 - 294                 D2 (GPA - 3): 195 - 244


Marks Range For all Subjects: 

1st Language, 3rd Language, Non Language Subjects	2nd Language	Grade	Grade Point
92-100	90-100	A1	10
83-91	80-89	A2	9
75-82	70-79	B1	8
67-74	60-69	B2	7
59-66	50-59	C1	6
51-58	40-49	C2	5
43-50	30-39	D1	4
35-42	20-29	D2	3
34-0	19-0	E	Fail

Example 1: 
A Student Achieved Every subject with 92-100 Marks Range , the he gets complete 10 Points each for every subject , then the total six subjects of 10 each and he get's 60 Points with 6 Subjects
Thus 60 is divided by 6 : ( 60/6) and results 10 Points .
60/6 = 10 Points = A1 Grade.


Example 2: 
If your Grade follows like A1+A2+A1+A1+A2+A1 in 6 subjects.Then your Grade Points calculation calculate as 10+9+10+10+9+10=58/6=9.66. Here your Grade Points=9.66. 

Grade Point Average in SSC from now on

Grading system Students who score marks in the range of 92 to 100 in a particular subject, will get an A1 grade. For 83 to 91 marks (A2), 75 to 82 (B1), 67 to 74 (B2), 59 to 66 (C1), 51 to 58 (C2), 43 to 50 (D1), 35 to 42 (D2) and for 34 and below marks, an E grade will be awarded.
For A1 grade students, 10 grade points will be awarded, while it will be 9 for A2, 8 for B1, 7 for B2, 6 for C1, 5 for C2, 4 for D1, 3 for D2.

For E-grade, there will be no grade points. The SSC board has finally decided to adopt the ‘Grade Point Average’ (GPA) method, along the lines of the CBSE, while issuing mark sheets to SSC students this year. The marks will not be announced while releasing SSC results on May 23. Grade points will be replaced with marks in SSC marks memos. Besides this, unlike earlier, the total marks will not be printed on SSC memos. Even marks secured in individual subjects will be shown as grades and grade points. The final grade point will be the average of these grade points, secured in individual subjects.

The SSC results will be announced on May 23 at 4.30 pm.

TOEFL candidates can pay fee in rupees

Candidates appearing for the TOEFL iBT test can now pay in Indian rupees and not in US dollars like earlier. Test takers from India paying in rupees will no longer incur currency exchange fees charged by most debit and credit card companies. Moreover, they don't have to worry about the exchange rates that keep changing. The new payment choice is available to test takers through the credit card option when they register online.

“The decision was taken based on feedback from test takers and it will be convenient for Indian students to pay in their own currency,” according to David Hunt, Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of ETS's Global Division. In November last, ETS that conducts the test, introduced another welcome change for test takers by condensing the testing format of the Reading section to a maximum of four reading passages.

The Reading section is no longer divided into separately timed parts, rather all passages and questions are made available in a single block of time allowing test takers to pace themselves through the entire Reading section. More information can be had on ‘www.ets.org/toefl'.

39 pharmacy colleges blacklisted in Andhra Pradesh

The Pharmacy Council of India has blacklisted 39 pharmacy colleges in the state for admitting more than the permitted limit of 100 students. The colleges have admitted between 180 and 300 students when the limit is 100. No admissions will be allowed in these colleges for the ensuing 2012-13 academic year. The PCI has decided not to recognise the degrees awarded by these colleges. This puts at risk 5,000 students, who are now in their second and third years.

Dr B. Suresh, PCI chairman, will meet Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy on May 9 to submit the list of “blacklisted” colleges, which have violating the PCI norms, and urge him to  erecognise them by withdrawing university affiliation.  With this, the one-upmanship between the All India Council for Technical Education and the PCI over the control of pharmacy colleges has taken a new turn. The PCI’s contention is that the colleges have violated the Education Regulation Act, 1999 by admitting more students. However, the managements of these colleges claim that their intake has been approved by the AICTE, and that PCI’s diktat is unilateral and unjustified. The PCI contends that AICTE has given indiscriminate approval to increased student intake without first checking that the infrastructure and faculty in these colleges are adequate.