K-12 School Education News | Stay Updated with Edinbox

National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) and visual communications platform Canva have entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the launch of three self-paced, digital certification and training courses for teachers in India. These courses are to be offered for free and are aimed at building digital, creative, and collaborative classroom teaching skills among teachers in schools.

Canva teacher training module will be provided on DIKSHA, the Ministry of Education school education digital platform. It will also be aired through DTH TV channels of PM eVidya to provide reach to teachers in rural and inaccessible areas where internet is not available. The courses will also be provided in some Indian languages to ensure wide outreach.

The educators will be trained to create engaging lesson plans, presentations, infographics, and other educational materials using Canva Education. The educators will learn collaborative pedagogy and classroom applications of AI tools. The educators will be jointly certified by NCERT and Canva upon completion.

Under the MoU, Canva would make its education platform and tools accessible for free, as well as help prepare instructional materials. NCERT would adapt the content to India's national curriculum and customize it for local use.

The training programme is as per National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and emphasizes developing visual learning, critical thinking, and design-based pedagogy. AI functionalities would also be utilized by educators in order to enhance the participation and performance of students.

Through this initiative, Indian teachers will be certified to utilize Canva Education's vast library that has over 500 tools and apps with in-built capabilities like games, translation, worksheets, and infographics for subjects and classes. The platform's AI-based tools will help teachers make it easy to create content while facilitating efficient planning and delivery in terms of time.

In a statement, Canva announced that its education platform has welcomed more than 25 million teachers and students in 2024 alone, taking its global learning base to more than 100 million users. The platform saw a 50% increase in the use of teachers and a 107% increase in student usage over the previous year. Canva's AI-powered tools like Dream Lab are becoming ever-more popular among educators for creating personalized visuals, enhancing online learning environments worldwide even further.

Overwhelming demand for English medium has prompted the department of school education and literacy to declare opening of bilingual sections — English medium and the current Kannada medium — in 4,134 schools in the state.

Out of the total 1,465 govt schools in Bangalore South and Bangalore North, 1,103 are permitted to open the sections. There are 373 schools in Bangalore North and 730 in Bangalore South from class 1.

Up to 11,555 possible schools applied from 33 educational regions. The top 15 schools in each taluk with the largest number of students were chosen. English-medium sections began under the HD Kumaraswamy administration in 2019-20. Since then, 2,405 schools have received English-medium sections, including Karnataka Public Schools. During the 2024-25 financial year, 2,000 govt schools were allowed to open the new sections. The first batch is in class 7 presently.

Guest lecturers will be appointed in these sections by the department. The teachers will be trained by the department of state educational, research and training and by the Regional Institute of English prior to the start of classes.

"Admissions are on. As many of the schools had an indication that they would be granted permission, they had already prepared for it and began to admit children. Since class 1 is the Nali Kali system, the children won't require textbooks," said a senior official.

But educationists cautioned that the eleventh-hour decisions should not be allowed to impact teacher training. "Most English teachers in govt schools are not English specialists. They struggle with fluency, confidence, and how to teach English properly. Teacher mentoring and teacher training are necessary to upgrade teachers, to make them sensitized towards curriculum reforms, pedagogical and technological advancements, and enable them to refresh their knowledge and teaching approaches," said a teacher trainer.

"Most guest teachers are not trained in English-medium sections. The reason being that new teachers are appointed every year and there are no provisions in the budget to include guest teachers in training programmes. Even if they are summoned for training, they are not provided with training material, food, or travel allowance. I hope this time there will be a change," he continued.

The Madhya Pradesh government directed an investigation after paintwork invoices for two schools in Shahdol district which went viral on social media revealed suspected fake payments and inflated figures for material and labour.

The bills that were making the rounds online claim inflated quantities of materials and labor, indicating that 168 workers and 65 masons were dispatched to coat four liters of paint for one school and 275 workers and 150 masons to coat 20 liters for another.

Minister of School Education Uday Pratap Singh directed immediate action after suspected fictitious payments sanctioned in the guise of minor repairs at Sakandi Government High School and Nipaniya Higher Secondary School in Shahdol district's Beohari Assembly constituency were discovered.

The racket was exposed after millisecond-to-millisecond bills went viral on social media, highlighting what appear to be bloated entries under material and labour.

In Sakandi High School, official papers claimed that 168 labourers and 65 masons were employed to paint mere four litres. The expenditure documented -- Rs 1,06,984 -- has generated overall suspicion.

Nipaniya School accounts were no less damning: Rs 2,31,685 had been incurred as expended on the work of 275 labourers and 150 masons who reportedly worked on such contracts as pertained to mere twenty litres of paint, fitting ten windows, and four doors.

Taking dramatic action on the report, the Education Minister directed the Secretary of the School Education Department and the Commissioner of Public Instruction to hold a rapid and impartial inquiry.

He reiterated the zero-tolerance of the government towards corruption and malpractices in public departments and reaffirmed nobody caught would be excluded. Popular disillusionment and questions about the innocence of rural school infrastructure funds spending have been evoked by the revelations.

Others were left with amazement at how these overspendings were tolerated, calling for tighter processes of accountability and audit procedures with regional education authorities.

The accident has struck at a time when the Madhya Pradesh government is going all out to push transparency and investment across various sectors. The accident may be a wake-up call for introducing more stringent audit mechanisms, online transparency tools, and decentralized monitoring mechanisms with local stakeholders.

Gorakhpur's Pankhuri Tripathi, a school drop-out student due to financial difficulties, on Monday resumed her studies after Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath intervened. During his Janta Darshan in Gorakhpur, Tripathi told CM Yogi about the financial plight of her family that was proving to be a huge hurdle for her education.

CM assured her of his support and directed officials to act expeditiously. "Either your charges will be waived, or we will make the amount," he said to the girl.

Following his intervention, Saraswati Shishu Mandir waived the outstanding fee of Rs 18000 through coordination by the district administration and education department. The RSS-education managed school had first refused to grant any concession on the grounds that "no such provision existed" in the school but Pankhuri returned to school on Monday wearing her school uniform and for Class 7-B. Her fee was waived with help from the district administration, PTI reported.

Tripathi family expressed gratitude to CM Yogi for his timely action. They said his assistance had provided their daughter with a future again.

Pankhuri Tripathi expressed her gratitude to CM Yogi for also sponsoring her education. " I requested CM Yogi to waive my fees. He happily accepted the waiver and motivated me to do better in life. I want to thank him. I am very grateful and happy," she further said.

The family of Pankhuri Tripathi faced a setback when his father lost his job due to an accident. She desires to be an IAS officer.

A Class 7 girl's request to be provided with money that will make her an IAS officer has been politicized in Uttar Pradesh.

Pankhuri Tripathi's family too suffered a great loss when her father Rajiv Kumar Tripathi suffered a severe injury in the leg through an accident and had to be sent out of service. The family went to Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and were assured that her education would not be hampered.

The Class 7 student requested the school administration to waive her fee payment, but the school management refused and informed her that there was no such clause. Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav has now criticized the Uttar Pradesh BJP government and promised to help the girl study. The parents of Pankhuri believe that the Chief Minister will step forward and help her realize her ambitions.

Pankhuri Tripathi learns in Pakkibag-based Saraswati Shishu Mandir. Vidya Bharati school operated by RSS's education wing charges Rs 1,650 to students of Class 7. Pankhuri will have to pay almost Rs 18,000.

"I went to the Chief Minister with a fee pardon request. He offered me chocolate and that he would do it. But when my father brought me to school, they treated us badly. They said that the fee can't be pardoned. They said that if more parents ask for a fee pardon, then the school can't run. They said that they have to pay teachers," she repeated again.

"My father wept. No one has ever spoken to him in such a manner earlier. But I do not wish for the Chief Minister to shatter my dream. I shall work and become an IAS officer," Pankhuri said.

Yogi Adityanath's stronghold is Gorakhpur. He is Mathadhyaksh of the Gorakhnath Math and five-time MP of Gorakhpur prior to joining politics and becoming the state's Chief Minister.

State Opposition Samajwadi Party chief and state's top Opposition leader, Akhilesh Yadav, has now retaliated against the ruling party for Pankhuri's remark. "We promise her education will never be disrupted. This is the bitter truth of the BJP's hollow promise of 'Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao'. We implore the BJP not to play with children," Mr Yadav tweeted on X.

Pankhuri's father, Rajiv Tripathi, said that he had traveled out of the state before the COVID-19 pandemic. "I was at home under lockdown. I slipped off the terrace and injured my leg. I lost employment. Both my children are studying in English-medium schools. My son is pursuing Class 12, and my daughter is pursuing Class 7. I was struggling to pay their school fee and my daughter did not report to school after February. It's the final year of my son's schooling, so I did not want to end his studies. I had considered withdrawing my daughter from school for one year. Then I thought that I could seek the help of the Chief Minister. We approached Janata Durbar on July 1 and sought his help. He instructed officers forthwith that my daughter's study should not be disrupted," he added.

"The school administration, however, asserted that they had no provision for a fee pardon. They claimed that if the administration issues a fee pardon to all parents, the school will shut down. They responded in a discourteous manner. When I witnessed my daughter crying, I also cried," he said.

After hearing the news of acquainting himself with the fact, Mr Yadav tweeted about the issue and staged a show of support, Mr Tripathi responded, "He has tweeted. However, we are in contact with the Math and Maharaj ji (i.e., Yogi Adityanath) and we think that he would arrange for the education of my daughter."

NDTV tried to speak with the school administration but they declined to comment on the matter. The state education department's senior officer informed that the state government has written a letter to the school administration and a positive response is imminent.

The Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) has increased the courses offered under its 'School Connect' Program. While two courses, Data Science and Artificial Intelligence and Electronic Systems, were previously available, the programme now offers 10 online hands-on certificate courses for students of Class 10, 11 and 12 from schools across the nation. The courses will be for a period of eight weeks.

The registration process for the August 2025 batch is already open, and schools can register and admit their students at code.iitm.ac.in/schoolconnect/ by July 25.

Emphasizing the vision of the institute towards school interaction, Prof V Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras, stated, "At IIT Madras, we are of the opinion that early exposure to future areas of interest can trigger curiosity and create future innovators. By empowering students in an early stage, we are building a nation for the future."

The School Connect Program is an outreaching flagship program by Centre for Outreach and Digital Education (CODE) at IIT Madras to connect school education and higher education.

This program empowers students in schools — particularly those studying in Classes 10, 11 and 12— to discover new areas and make informed choices regarding their future academic and professional trajectory. Assignments and an optional project will be part of the courses for a hands-on experience.

These programs are conducted in three batches during the current academic year in August, October, and January so that schools and students can take up to three courses a year.

The Courses available are:

1. Introduction to Data Science and AI
2. Introduction to Electronic Systems
3. Introduction to Architecture & Design
4. Fun with Math and Computing
5. Math Unplugged: Games & Puzzles
6. Introduction to Ecology
7. Introduction to Engineering Biological Systems
8. Introduction to Law
9. The Fundamentals of Aerospace
10. Humanities Unplugged

The Institute, in a release made in this connection stated that it would soon be introducing more short-term programmes in different disciplines to familiarize students with different areas of study. "Such programmes will provide students with a special chance to find out about different career streams and acquire first-hand experience about their academic paths in the future," it further added.