30 September 2016 Current Affairs
Fresh date to be announced soon, Pakistan postpones SAARC summit 
After five nations pulled out of the 19th South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Summit that was scheduled to take place in Islamabad in November, Pakistan on Friday announced that it was postponing the summit and fresh dates would be released soon. In a press release, the office of Pakistan foreign ministry said, “A new set of dates for holding of the 19th Saarc Summit at Islamabad will be announced soon; through the Chair of Saarc (Nepal).Pakistan feels India’s decision to delay the Saarc process by not attending the 19th Saarc Summit at Islamabad on 9-10 November 2016.”The announcement comes days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi decided to skip the summit and surrounded by implying tensions between India and Pakistan. However, Pakistan remained resistant until recently, saying it would go ahead in organising the summit. MEA Spokesperson had earlier stated that even if one member country pulls out of the summit, it must be postponed.
Get: State Level Current Affairs
Mentorship programme for students, Twitter India to launch #AskTheMentor
Twitter India will be launching #AskTheMentor, a new mentorship series from today. , September 30, that will offer students a chance to interact in real time with mentors and leaders on Twitter. Interested students may tweet their questions to @VenkyMysore using the hashtag #AskTheMentor. Twitter India will be launching #AskTheMentor, a new mentorship series that will offer students a chance to interact in real time with mentors and leaders on Twitter and to learn from the mentor’s life experiences. It is a part of its ongoing digital campus programme focused on bringing #CampusLife alive on Twitter.According to HT report; the series will be launched today on September 30 at 4 pm. The first mentor on the series will be Venky Mysore, CEO, Red Chillies and Kolkata Knight Riders, who will be interacting with students from all over the country and will answer their queries through Twitter’s Q&A video app .Interested students may tweet their questions to @VenkyMysore using the hashtag #AskTheMentor. The social media platform is also collaborating with top education institutes in the country.
Get: International Current Affairs
2 Percent teacher understands Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE)
Surrounding several policies and programmes launched by many concern authorities to increase the education quality of the country, especially in the government schools, several such programmes are not yielding favourable results. According to the recent pan-India survey conducted by Chrysalis, agency list with CBSE to impart CCE training to teachers revealed almost all the teachers did not understand the CCE system. According to the finding, 98 percent of the teachers, despite provided with training, still don’t know CCE. The survey was led by Chitra Ravi, a master trainer for CBSE and CEO of Chrysalis.”During our survey, we had detailed questionnaires filled up by 757 teachers and 123 principals. We also had Focussed Group Discussions (FGD) with teachers from 18 different schools. Only 2 per cent teachers mentioned that the purpose of assessment is feedback and improvement, which tells us that the CCE implementation is not heading in the right direction,” said Ganesh Subramanian, Director of the Chrysalis group, reported TOI .The survey suggested that it would take a long time to meaningfully implement CCE in the CBSE, ICSE, and other states board.
