Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani schoolgirl brought to England after being shot in the head by the Taliban, has announced the first donation from her new education charity with the support of Hollywood superstar Angelina Jolie.

Malala, who now attends Edgbaston High School for girls in Birmingham, said it was the happiest moment of her life, in a video played at the Women in the World summit in New York City.

The 15-year-old set up the Malala Fund after surviving an assassination attempt by the Taliban in October, after standing up for her right to go to school in her home country.

She spent hours undergoing major surgery at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham wherea surgeons tried to repair the damage caused by a bullet which grazed her brain.

The grant of 45,000 US dollars will be given to an unnamed organisation in the Swat Valley in Pakistan to support the education of 40 girls aged five to 12 who would otherwise be forced into domestic labour.

The organisation, which was not named for security reasons, will offer a safe place for the girls to study as well as financial support for their families.

In a video played to an audience of thousands she said: “Announcing the first grant of the Malala Fund is the happiest moment in my life.

“I invite all of you to support the Malala Fund and let us turn the education of 40 girls into 40 million girls.”
Hollywood actress and UN special envoy Jolie introduced the video and pledged to give 200,000 US dollars to the fund.

She praised the young girl’s courage.

“Here’s what they accomplished,” Jolie said of Malala’s attackers. “They shot her point-blank range in the head – and made her stronger. The brutal attempt to silence her voice made it stronger.”

The Malala Fund supports the education and empowerment of girls in Pakistan and around the world and provides grants to civil society organizations and individuals focused on education.

The fund is run by a board of trustees, including Malala and her family, with the support of the Vital Voices Global Partnership, founded by Hilary Clinton.

Where ICSE has already announced board exam dates, students of classes X and XII studying under Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) will have to wait for another 11 days to know the board examination dates as the final dates will be out only near January 15. CBSE's regional director R J Khanderao, while talking to TOI, said, "We can expect the exam dates to be out by or on January 15."

However, the news has helped in lowering down student's anxiety which otherwise has been increasing with every passing day. Atul Sharma, a Class XII student of Commerce, said, "Since December I have been regularly checking CBSE's website to know the exam date. But now I can relax as I know it will be out by January 15."

Swati Duggal, another Class XII student with non-medical, said, "I have been preparing for All India Engineering Entrance Examination (AIEEE) as well. Therefore, I want to be clear about the dates so that I can prioritize and make my study time table accordingly."
Sheekha Narang, a Class XII student with Commerce, said, "I am unable to decide as to which subject I should prepare first. So if the exam date is out and I have the date sheet in front of me then I will be able to set the schedule accordingly."

Abhay Singh, a Class X student, said, "My anxiety took a toll when I got to know that ICSE has declared the examination date. Since then I have been regularly checking the CBSE website." His friend cum classmate Saurav Kant said, "I wonder if like ICSE even CBSE will schedule the exams in February as in that case there will be very less time for preparation."

In schools under Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE) board exams for Class X will begin from February 27 where and exams for Class XII will begin from February 13. The dates have been scheduled in February tests.

For the first time in its history, students from schools affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education [CBSE] will get a chance to participate, express their opinion and give inputs during their periodic meetings. The Course Committees constituted for major subjects will now have a student representative.

CBSE for the first time since its inception, has included a student nominee in its Course Committees. CBSE has Course Committees for all its courses including vocational subjects. Each committee is reconstituted every three years. The committee discusses, debates, collects various inputs and ideas related to subject disciplines and reviews them to suit the needs of its students, parents and society.

These students, who have passed out of Class XII in March 2012, based on their performance and in consultation with the schools, are being nominated by CBSE.

CBSE is confident that the student nominees will actively contribute towards the development of its courses. CBSE also considers the involvement of students in framing the syllabus essential, since the nominees will have a clear understanding of the future prospects of the subject alongwith the limitations.

The Course Committee consists of Professors from Universities, experts from National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), teachers and subject experts from Kendriya Vidyalaya Sanghatan, Private and Public Schools and practising teachers.

‘We wish to make the courses and syllabus more inclusive and application-based. Since, the course and syllabus prepared by Committees is to be followed by students, we will hear their voice. I am sure the inputs given by the students will help designing the courses better,’ said Vineet Joshi, Chairman, CBSE, New Delhi.

Inputs from students, one for each of the major subjects is expected to contribute to various aspects of the particular subject.

The CBSE plans to use these inputs for improving the subject content and syllabus of the concerned courses.

CBSE is keen to understand the trends amongst students regarding the scope of the major subjects it offers as well as their link with the University/vocational degrees in India and abroad. This will help improve the CCE [Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation] – based educational system initiated by the Board.

NEW DELHI: The Delhi high court has held that a university here has to provide equal reservation to disabled candidates in admission as available to scheduled caste and scheduled tribe candidates to avoid “discrimination”.
The court said it was “discriminatory” on the part of Delhi Technical University (DTU) to provide only five percent relaxation in admission to disabled candidates in comparison to 10 per cent reservation to scheduled caste and scheduled tribe candidates and asked the university to also extend this to disabled candidates.
“People suffering from disabilities are equally socially backward, if not more, as those belonging to SC/ST categories and therefore, as per the Constitutional mandates, they are entitled to at least the same benefit of relaxation as given to SC/ST candidates,” a division bench consisting of Acting Chief Justice A.K. Sikri and Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw observed in a judgment made available only now.
The bench was dealing with the question of law as to the quantum of relaxation in standards to be provided to disabled candidates for admission to engineering college in the reserved quota for persons with disabilities.
The question that arose before the court was whether or not the relaxation provided to SC/ST candidates for B.Tech programmme at DTU, that provides technical courses, was to be extended to disabled candidates.
The court’s direction came on a plea filed by one Anamol Bhandari, who is 50 per cent physically disabled.
He had challenged the provisions of DTU that has provided 10 per cent concession of marks in the minimum eligibility requirements for candidates belonging to SC/ST, but relaxation of only five percent for people with disabilities.
The plea said that Bhandari through AIEEE examination became eligible to be considered for admission in DTU. He secured 52.66 per cent (PCM) in Class 12, whereas minimum eligibility for physically challenged candidates in the university is 55 per cent, and so he was not being considered for admission for B.Tech computer science course.
“If the relaxation to people with disability candidates is given at par with SC/ST candidates, i.e., to the extent of 10 per cent, then he becomes naturally eligible to be considered in DTU,” the petition said.
The court, besides directing the university to provide 10 per cent relaxation to physically challenged candidates, also asked it to consider Bhandari for admission in B.Tech course and, if found eligible for admission, grant him the same.
“We, therefore, hold that the provision giving only five percent concession in marks to disabled candidates as opposed to 10 percent relaxation provided to SC/ST candidates is discriminatory and people with disability are also entitled to same treatment.
“The mandate is, accordingly, issue direction to DTU to provide 10 per cent relaxation. Thus, the minimum eligibility requirement for persons with disability becomes 50 per cent in PCM,” the order said.
Advocate Rajan Mani, amicus curiae in the case appointed by the court, told IANS: “DTU’s admission criteria for general category candidates was 60 per cent marks at class 12 level, relaxed by 10 per cent for SC/ST candidates (i.e qualifying marks of 50 per cent) but only by 5 per cent for disabled candidates (i.e. qualifying marks of 55 per cent).
DTU had sufficient seats reserved for persons with disabilities but did not find Bhandari eligible based on the qualifying standard of 55 per cent for the disability reservation category, added Mani.
The university, an autonomous one that comes under the technical education department of the Delhi government, however, had told the court it is a policy decision to grant five per cent relaxation to disabled students keeping the cut-off entry at 55 per cent and these standards are in conformity with the Delhi University where relaxation of 5 per cent marks is given to disabled students.
The court also highlighted the government’s decision that was accepted by the Supreme Court that reservation for disabled is called horizontal reservation which cuts across all vertical categories such as SC, ST, OBC and General.
The court opined: “Since people with disabilities belonging to SC/ST categories, i.e., vertical categories enjoyed the relaxation which is provided to SC/ST categories, there is no reason not to give the same benefit/concession to those disabled who are in General Category or Other Backward Class Category as that process only would bring parity among all persons’ disparity irrespective of their vertical categories.”
“This itself provides for justification to accord same concession, viz., 10 per cent concession to people with disabilities as well, in all categories which is extended to those disabled students who fall in the category of SC/ST,” the order further added.