EDUCONNECT ASIA 25 November 2020

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INDIA: LATEST UPDATES

India has recorded a fresh spike of 44,376 Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours, pushing the country’s infection tally past 9.22 million. However, the recovery rate of 93.72% continues to bring some solace. This surge in new cases has prompted state governments to shut all educational institutions till 31 December and reopen for the new academic session in 2021. Online classes will continue as usual, and conducting exams, evaluation, and administrative activities is permitted.
 
The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), the main school exam board in India, has confirmed that exams for Class 10 and 12 will proceed as is the norm and the schedule for 2021 is likely to be announced soon. CBSE released the tentative dates for the Class 12 board Lab exams which will take place from 1 January to 8 February 2021.
 
JEE-Main, the national level competitive test for admission to various undergraduate engineering colleges across the country, is likely to be held in February instead of January next year. The JEE-Main is conducted twice a year in January and April, but due to COVID-19 the April exam this year was postponed twice and finally held in September.

SUBCONTINENT & SOUTHEAST ASIA UPDATES

Pakistan: Two months after students returned to their classes, authorities decided to close all educational institutions again from 26 November 26 to 10 January 10 to contain the spread of the coronavirus with the positivity rate having shot up to 7.4%. All universities, colleges, and schools will be switched to online teaching mode. The Government is seriously considering extending the current academic session until August 2021 and holding various board examinations in May and June of next year. 

Bangladesh: Dhaka University, last week, unveiled an automation software to manage all student activities online. Using this software, students will be able to complete all university activities online and even have a separate profile on the site, where their personal information, results and other information will be stored.  Under a new curriculum development project, the National Curriculum and Textbook Board is going to recommend that no public examinations up to Class 10 are held, and that students must not be divided into groups according to disciplines of science, humanities and business studies from Class 9. This new framework would require school authorities to employ continuous assessment based on daily classroom activities and hold examinations from Class 3.

Nepal:  The National Examination Board (NEB) is conducting the board examinations of Grade 12 students, which will end by 1 December.  The exam is worth only 40% of the total grade. Another 40% will be covered from the cumulative marks obtained by the students in Grade 11, while the remaining 20% will be taken from the internal evaluation. An initiative by Nepalis living in Australia has led to the creation of a new portal that provides integrated information about universities across the globe to students at home and abroad.

Sri Lanka: Nearly 5100 schools in the island reopened for students from Grades 6-13 for the third term from 23 November, with a satisfactory attendance from teachers and students. The Grade 5 Scholarship Examination 2020 results have been released online, where four students for the first time have recorded 200/200 marks. The NextGen Girls in Technology project, a part of the Shilpa Sayura Foundation that supports Sri Lankan girls and women and gives them access to learn and succeed with emerging technologies, has won the 2020 UNESCO Prize for Girls’ and Women’s Education.

Vietnam: According to Swiss Education First, a global language training company, Vietnam has fallen 13 places over a year in the EF English Proficiency Index (EPI) with an average score of 473 out of 800 for 2020. As part of the “National Qualifications Archive” project, Vietnam’s Ministry of Education and Technology plans to issue all diplomas granted by its high school and higher education training units on the blockchain platform TomoChain. The new system will reportedly come into effect during the 2021 school year. 

Philippines: This year, De La Salle University has adopted a new admissions process and will not administer the College Admission Test for 2020 with the pandemic having disrupted the conduct of in-person entrance exams in higher education institutions. Applications for freshman admissions for AY 2021-2022 are now open. Applicants will be evaluated based on their high school academic records and other criteria.

ANNOUNCEMENTS: TOP STUDY DESTINATIONS

USA

  • A 2020 snapshot survey revealed that freshman international student enrolment in US, whether for in-person classes or those studying online from their home countries, decreased by 43% for the Fall semester.
  • Unfriendly visa and immigration policies have reduced the number of students going to the US. Of the top 25 study destinations, 19 recorded a decline in growth rate in 2019-20 when compared to the previous year.
  • According to the Open Doors report, Indian has remained the second largest source of international students for the US, despite a 4% decline from the previous year. Indian students comprise nearly 20% of the one million students from around the world that study in US, and the country has seen a steady increase in the number of undergraduate students from India.

UK

  • Vice-chancellors have given their backing to a radical overhaul of higher education admissions, which would mean UK students will only be offered a place at university once they have their A-level results. Universities could introduce the change as early as the academic year 2023-24.
  • The Cambridge Education Group has announced that it is partnering with UK’s Aston University to provide a pathway program for international students which will launch in September 2021.

Australia

  • Mitchell Institute, a part of Victoria University, released two papers by Peter Hurley forecasting the impact of COVID-19 on the international education sector and the broader economy. Australia is predicted to lose around half of its international student population by mid next year.

Germany

  • The German Academic Exchange Service, DAAD, shows that China and India are the most popular source countries for international students coming to Germany, making up around 13% and 7% of the international pool respectively. Germany has gained popularity as a study destination and has climbed up one notch to occupy the fourth spot, upstaging France.

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