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Part of the effort to make school education employable, the Uttar Pradesh government is set to introduce a 210-hour skill building program for students from Class 9 through 12 in government schools, officials stated on Thursday.

The program falls under 'Project Praveen', which is part of the implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 by the state and will be provided for free. The course covers 150 hours of foundational skill development, 30 hours of soft skills, and 30 hours of industrial visits—all of which are now compulsory modules for the students enrolled.

The announcement was made at an online session conducted by Pulkit Khare, Director of Uttar Pradesh Skill Development Mission (UPSDM). CEOs and members of Sector Skill Council (SSC) have attended the session and are responsible for planning and implementing the modules.

This is a big leap towards bringing vocational training at par with formal education," Khare added. "It will expose students to practical experience as also learning and push them towards actual jobs.".

The course content will be customized according to local industry requirements and student choice. District magistrates will identify the concerned sectors in the relevant areas, and the SSC has been instructed to prepare the content accordingly. The UPSDM plans to implement the programme by the 2025–26 academic year.

Government school students will be provided with industrial visits for the very first time in their curriculum, enabling on-the-job training and practical exposure to working environments. The scheme, the press release further stated, would ensure "employment-oriented education" and equip students with life skills like communication, team work, and professionalism.

The officials said that the program is one piece of a bigger initiative to overhaul secondary schooling and prepare students with both the academic knowledge and the skills necessary to compete in the modern workforce.

A huge fire engulfed the hostel of Government Girl's Residential School situated under Bariatu Block in Latehar on Monday morning. The blaze was so intense that all the beds and other items of everyday living stored in Hall No. 5 of the hostel were reduced to ashes.

All 240 girl students, who study in the school, are secure. Instead, they extinguished the fire with the assistance of the school staff without taking any assistance from the district administration.

"It is all because of their action that the fire did not spread any further, otherwise the whole school would have been on fire," a local Rajeev Kumar said. They brought water from the handpump in the area and quenched the flames by spilling water on it, he said.

After receiving the information, District Education Officer Prince Kumar hurried to the scene to assess the situation. Prima facie, the fire was said to have originated from short circuit, but the issue is being probed considering all sides. All the girls are safe as nobody has been injured in the accident, he said.

Kumar also added that the staff and the teachers of the school are also absolutely secure. The beds stored in the hostel and other items stored in the room have been destroyed, he added.

Alternate arrangements are being made for the girl students' stay in the meantime.

As per the students, the smoke was observed coming from the hostel while all they were out to the ground to go for PT classes. Before anyone could realize anything, the smoke developed into fire within a few minutes and spread to a room in Hall No. 5 of the hostel, where the girl students' beds were stored.

"All the bed on the room were totally burnt. But on receiving news about the incident, some villagers also arrived there and attempted to douse the fire on their own level. But the fire was extremely ferocious that everything was reduced to ashes," an anonymous student said.

Thank God that they had gone out of the hostel for PT; if the accident had happened one hour earlier, there might have been a huge loss of life as well, she added.

The school is now operating in a very outdated building and the school's new building is under construction for the past 5 years; there is an immense lack of space in the hostel. Also, the electric wires have become outdated.

A government school headmaster in Kerala was arrested for beating a Class X student, bursting his eardrum, the police said on Tuesday. The incident was reported at Government Higher Secondary School, Kundamkuzhi, on August 11 when the headmaster Ashokan saw the 16-year-old boy playing with pebbles by his feet during the school assembly.

The accused teacher reportedly summoned the victim to the front of the assembly, pulled him by the collar, and slapped him, bursting his eardrum, police added.

The child complained of a severe ear ache after the occurrence and was transferred to a government hospital, where the doctors authenticated the injury in his ear. He is receiving treatment at a private hospital.

Police authorities at Bedakam police station, Kasaragod, have confirmed a case had been registered against the headmaster on Monday evening.

The case was registered under Section 126(2) (wrongful restraint) and Section 115(2) (voluntarily causing hurt) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and Section 75 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act (cruelty to a child).

The case was registered after the victim's complaint, whose initial statement was taken by the police on Monday.

Police officials informed that they have opened an investigation into the case, and the headmaster's statement will be taken soon.

In the meantime, officials from the Kerala State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (KSCPCR) met the child and family on Tuesday.

The KSCPCR also registered a case and is investigating.

After the incident, Education Minister V Sivankutty directed the education department to carry out an investigation and submit a report.

A report will be submitted to the minister soon by Kasargod District Education Officer, sources added.

The Gujarat Council of Educational Research and Training (GCERT) has initiated state-wide training on using the newly-designed 'Teacher Edition' for all Class 3 to 8 teachers.

The training, commenced on August 18, will be conducted up to September 29, 2025, in blended mode, both online and offline, at taluka-level centres, according to official sources.

The 'Teacher Edition' has been created to apply the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and National Curriculum Framework (NCF) 2023 in classrooms directly.

With subject-specific versions developed by GCERT, the editions seek to prepare teachers to develop 21st-century skills like problem-solving, team working, communication, and digital literacy in students.

The training focuses on innovative pedagogy, experiential approach, and digital literacy.

The teachers are not only being introduced to the Teacher Edition but are also undergoing classroom simulations through activity-based modules, demonstrations, and group work.

Inaugurating the programme, Principal Secretary Mukesh Kumar and Education Minister Kuber Dindor wished the teachers best of luck.

Minister of State for Education Praful Panseriya, in a video message, appealed to teachers to groom students for 'Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat' and utilize the state's Gunvatta Abhiyan (Quality Campaign) optimally.

GCERT Director P.K. Trivedi, along with senior educational officials, underlined the urgency for teachers to be current with modern practices and utilize the Teacher Edition to help improve quality in the classroom. The editions are posted on GCERT's website and the DIKSHA platform.

Through providing hands-on, student-focused training, the state aims to change classroom practices and bring teaching in line with the larger changes in the curriculum, pedagogy, and assessment imagined by NEP 2020 and NCF 2023.

The Gujarat government included a whopping Rs 59,999 crore for the Education Department in its 2025–26 fiscal budget, the second-largest allocation after finance, indicating high priority to the modernization of education in accordance with the 'Viksit Bharat 2047' vision.

Pivotal investments are Rs 2,914 crore towards upgradation of more than 25,000 classrooms under the Mission Schools of Excellence, Rs 1,250 crore for the Namo Lakshmi Yojana (education of girls), and Rs 782 crore under the RTE Act to assist students enrolled in private schools.

The budget also allocated resources for infrastructure in higher education - such as Rs 175 crore for AI labs and Rs 100 crore for the new Gujarat Institute of Technology - and large scholarship and welfare programs like Gyan Sadhana, Gyan Setu, MYSY, and Namo Saraswati, besides inducting more than 22,000 teachers to enhance quality and access in the system.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education has exhorted the Education Department to recruit the 10 lakh teaching positions vacant in the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA)-funded schools of different States.

Close to 7.5 lakh posts are present in the primary and elementary stages of these National Education Mission schools.

The Committee, which is headed by MP Digvijaya Singh and includes 31 Lok Sabha MPs and 10 Rajya Sabha MPs, presented its report to the Lower House on August 8 and to the Upper House on the same day.

This is the 368th report of the committee and is on the subject, "The functioning of National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) and initiatives taken to support training of teachers in light of NEP 2020's thrust on Capacity Building of Teachers."

There was no enhancement of filling up of vacancy posts in these SSA-financed schools of the state Governments notwithstanding repeated suggestions by the Committee in its 349th and 363rd Reports to fill them within time, the Committee noted.

The vacancy position "is increasing day by day due to retirement of teachers and due to lack of a permanent recruitment policy."

The panel thus advised the Education Department "to take up the issue of teacher vacancies in SSA-funded schools of the State Governments forcefully." The teachers' salary component of SSA funds of the States that fail to implement the directions of the Department to fill up the vacancies may be put in abeyance until the respective States act as per the directives of the Centre, it further added.

Among 14.8 lakh schools, only approximately 3,000 schools are governed by the Government of India. "In this regard, the Committee is forced to observe that the percentage of vacancies in the Government of India-governed schools such as Kendriya Vidyalayas (KVs), Navodaya Vidyalayas (NVs) etc., are also critical. There are total 30% to 50% vacancies in KVs and NVs also," it added.

It has set a deadline of March 31, 2026, to fill regular/permanent teachers here and provide information to the committee.

The Committee demanded an end to contractual appointments in the KVs, NVs as well as SSA-financed schools saying they go against Constitutional provision of reservation in Government jobs to SC, ST, OBC, PwD and EWS categories.

A government school teacher has been arrested by the police in Madhya Pradesh's Ujjain district on charges of ripping and burning photos of Bharat Mata and Hindu gods and goddesses. He is also said to have forced Hindu students to read the Quran and learn how to perform Namaz.

A case was filed under BNS Sections 298 and 351(3) -- relating to desecrating a place of worship or items revered by a specific religious community and criminal intimidation -- at Jharda police station in Ujjain on Wednesday, and the accused teacher Shaqil Mohammad Nagori was arrested by the police.

The case was filed on the complaint of Nagpura village resident Rohit Rathore, whose cousin Anurag Rathore is a Class VI student in the government secondary school in Nagpura, where the accused is a teacher.

The complainant said his cousin informed him in the morning on Wednesday that the said teacher, Shaqil Mohammad Nagori, tore and set ablaze photographs of Bharat Mata and Hindu deities in front of school children on July 11.

"A picture of Bharat Mata was half burnt in front of the school when I reached school on Wednesday," the complaint claimed in the complaint.

The complainant also claimed that his cousin and other Hindu students at the said government school have informed him that the Muslim teacher routinely asks them to read the Quran and learn how to perform Namaz.

The school kids informed the complainant that the teacher had threatened to kill them if they publicized the issue (tearing and setting on fire pictures of Bharat Mata, Hindu deities).

While assuring the development, another SP (ASP-Ujjain) Mayur Khandelwal stated, "A case has been registered on the complaint and the concerned teacher has been taken into custody." 

Meanwhile, according to the latest reports, the concerned teacher has been suspended by the Ujjain district education officer, in the wake of the incident.