Sponsoring Academic Integrity: The Role of Human and Informational Sources of Scholarship in Adoption of Plagiarism-Avoiding Techniques among Research Students of Social Sciences

Plagiarism is a serious offense that defies the ethics of scholarship and research. Research students need to pay substantive attention to the dynamics and contours of plagiarism in their creative, ethical, and academic endeavors. Scholarship avenues such as online tutorials and work assignments are important sources of instructions for plagiarism-avoidance among students. The current study explores the frequency of consultation of scholarship avenues and the usage of plagiarism-avoidance techniques among research students in social sciences. The study also recommends a scale to investigate plagiarism-avoidance techniques. Furthermore, it also examines the level of the study in predicting the usage of plagiarism-avoidance. Using the online survey technique, 108 research students from Pakistan were sampled. The questionnaire was uploaded on several student-based research groups of social media, including; Facebook, and Yahoo groups. Bivariate linear regression analysis was used for hypothesis testing. Findings revealed that scholarship avenues lead to greater usage of plagiarism-avoidance techniques among research students (R2=0.065). Supervisors, class-fellows, colleagues, and faculty of the department are prominent human scholarship avenues. Similarly, articles and books from the web, books from the library, the anti-plagiarism policy of the Higher Education Commission (HEC), and lectures delivered in the classroom were leading informational scholarship avenues. Stage of the study and consultation of the scholarship avenues were predictors of usage of plagiarism-avoidance techniques. It is recommended that (i) plagiarism-avoidance is promoted through prevention rather than detection, and that (ii) scholarship avenues (e.g. delivering lectures, institutional policy, and interaction with relevant websites) are used for enhancing awareness about intellectual dishonesty.

Educational Blockchain: A Secure Degree Attestation and Verification Traceability Architecture for Higher Education Commission

Degree attestation verification and traceability are complex one-to-one processes between the Higher Education Commission (HEC) and universities. The procedure shifted to the digitalized manner, but still, on a certain note, manual authentication is required. In the initial process, the university verified the degree and stamp seal first. Then, a physical channel of degree submission to the receiving ends is activated. After that, the degree is attested while properly examining and analyzing the tamper records related to degree credentials through e-communication with the university for verification and validation. This issue poses a serious challenge to educational information integrity and privacy. Potentially, blockchain technology could become a standardized platform to perform tasks including issuing, verifying, auditing, and tracing immutable records, which would enable the HEC, universities, and Federal Education Ministry (FEM) to quickly and easily get attested and investigate the forge proof versions of certificates. Besides, decentralized distributed data blocks in chronological order provide high security between distributed ledgers, consensus engine, digital signature, smart contracts, permissioned application, and private network node transactions that guarantee degree record validation and traceability. This paper presents an architecture (HEDU-Ledger) and detail design of blockchain-enabled hyperledger fabric applications implementation for degree attestation verification and traceable direct channel design between HEC and universities. The hyperledger fabric endorses attestation records first, and then validates (committer) the degree and maintains the secure chain of tracing between stakeholder peer nodes. Furthermore, this HEDU-Ledger architecture avoids language and administrative barriers. It also provides robustness in terms of security and privacy of records and maintains integrity with secure preservation as compared to that of the other state-of-the-art methods.

NEED AND IMPORTANCE OF POST LITERACY PROGRAMME: A STUDY IN THE EASTERN AND WESTERN DISTRICTS OF THE STATE OF ODISHA

Education is life and life is education. Education is very much necessary for making the citizens alert and capable of discharging their duties and responsibilities efficiently and wisely. Education is necessary not only for enabling man to participate in the affairs of the society and the government but also to save mankind from destruction and extinction. Many of us have realised the devastating effects of the second world war. A third such war will result in total extinction of human race. The need of the hour is understanding and international understanding, mutual love and respect for each other’s well being which can be developed through education. In the year 1946, the International Community charged UNESCO with the responsibility of promotion throughout the world due to its vital importance to the individual and social well-being. The United Nations proclaimed universal declaration of human rights. Article 45 of the Indian Constitution says that, the state shall endeavour to provide, “Universal, free and compulsory education to all children upto the age of 14 years within 10 years from the date of adoption of the constitution. The Education Commission (1964-66) holds that education is the powerful instrument which can bring changes in the society.

Flourishing The Higher Education in Pakistan: An Exploratory Analysis of The Role of Higher Education Commission (HEC)

The paramount aim of the underlying study is to explore the efficacy of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) through evaluating the effectiveness of the key initiatives which have been taken by the HEC to flourish the higher education and research environment in Pakistan. Using exploratory analysis, the study unleashes that the higher education and research culture has improved since 2002 owing to the HEC’s effective initiatives. These include, but are not limited to, increasing the capacity of in-service teaching faculty, induction of PhD faculty in public and private sector universities, award of indigenous and foreign scholarships, and provision of research grants, all of which had a positive influence on higher education through capacity building. A commendable increase in the number of universities along with the induction of highly qualified faculty has been witnessed, specifically the induction of indigenously produced PhDs. Apart from these, the HEC has played an instrumental role in helping to improve the gender parity by 45% in education sector. Moreover, in order to trace out what problems the HEC has been facing to implement its reforms, we conducted KIIs to the HEC officials who have been remained the part of policy implementation. The KIIs discloses that the deteriorating budgetary allocation, less cooperation from public sector universities, and questioning the HEC’s autonomy are the major challenges among others to the HEC in promoting an effective and inclusive higher education in Pakistan. The KIIs suggest that the autonomy of the HEC should not be compromised, and the liaison between universities and the HEC should be increased.

Elements of the teacher development system in learning management according to the concept of Education 4.0

The purpose of this study was to study the elements of the teacher development system in learning management according to the concept of Education 4.0 with a professional learning community process in secondary schools under the Office of the Basic Education Commission by studying the components of the teacher development system in learning management according to the concept of education 4.0 with a professional learning community process from 7 experts, consisting of 1) two people in higher education administration, 2) one person who has a stake in learning management, 3) two school directors, and 4) two teaching specialist teachers. The sample group was obtained by using a specific selection method using the teacher development system component assessment in learning management according to the concept of education 4.0 with a professional learning community process in secondary schools, under the Office of the Basic Education Commission, which is a 5-level rating scale. System Components Teacher development in learning management According to the educational model 4.0 with a professional learning community process in secondary schools, under the Office of the Basic Education Commission, there are 4 main components, 13 subcomponents, namely; 1) The inputs consist of (1) executives, (2) learning management courses, (3) teachers, (4) resources that support learning management. 2) The process consists of (1) Identifying challenging problems, (2) Concept finding stage, (3) Planning and development stage, (4) Testing and evaluation stage, (5) Presenting results to society. 3) Productivity consists of (1) Teachers have knowledge and understanding of learning management, (2) Teachers are competent in learning management. 4) feedback, which consists of (1) reporting on results and (2) improvements, corrections, and developments. And, the experts assess the suitability of the elements at a high and highest level and have consistent opinions on all components..

Synthesis of component and process of the development of functional competencies of heads of Department of Secondary Schools under Office of the Basic Education Commission, Thailand

This research project had the objective of synthesizing and process of the development of functional competencies of Heads of Departments of secondary schools under Office of the Basic Education Commission in Thailand. The study of the synthesis of Heads of Departments is carried out in 3 steps, namely, 1) data reduction, 2) data display, and 3) conclusion drawing/verification. The findings were as follows. The 7 components consist of 1) intellectual leadership, 2) quality management, 3) educational innovation and information technology, 4) professionalism development, 5) curriculum, measurement and evaluation of learning, 6) learning organization, and 7) professional ethic.

Confirmatory factor analysis of head of department’s functional competencies development: a case study in the secondary schools inThailand

Functional competencies of Head of Department has been paid attention to because for a school in Thailand, the head of each department, is very important. However, the issue is the appointment of a teacher who does not have any prior proper training before. This may cause such a teacher to have incomplete functional competencies. Therefore, it is necessary to develop the functional competencies of the Head of Department. This research focuses on the components of the functional competencies of the Head of Department of secondary schools under the Office of the Basic Education Commission. As for this study, from the review on a great number of related literature, it can be granted that functional competencies of the Head of Department of secondary schools under the Office of the Basic Education Commission can be grouped as follows: 1) Intellectual Leadership 2) Quality Management 3) Educational Innovation and Information Technology 4) Professionalism Development 5) Curriculum, Measurement and Evaluation of Learning 6) Learning Organization and 7) Professional Ethic. These seven dimensions are then examined using Confirmatory Factor Analysis, which shows the congruence with the empirical studies.

The Development of Cooperation Model for Protection and Care for Students under the Office of the Thailand Basic Education Commission

This paper reports the development of cooperation model for protection and care for students under The Thailand Office of the Basic Education Commission (OBEC). Consistent of 4 parts as follows: 1) background, concepts and the objectives of the model 2) model's components in three levels as the policy, the driven forced, and operating level 3) guidelines for using this model and 4) conditions for success. Experts have the overall opinion that the model is accurate, appropriate, feasible and useful

Tackling the gender biases in higher education careers in Pakistan: potential online opportunities post COVID-19

Driven to improve the quality of higher education as an engine of growth and socio-economic development within Pakistan for 20 years, the Higher Education Commission (HEC) in Pakistan has focused on linking academics and professional services staff with their counterparts in various countries, including the UK, US, and Australia. In collaboration with the British Council, the PAK-UK initiative has been launched to offer deeper linkages between the academics and universities in the UK and Pakistan. This paper presents statistical analysis of data collected in a British Council project highlighting the gender inequalities of the current HEC strategy. The results suggest the potential for online opportunities to help close and amend this gender gap and improve higher education in Pakistan, and the PAK-UK initiative’s role in contributing more broadly to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

A STUDY OF POLICIES AND PROGRAMMES OF DISABLED CHILDREN IN INDIA

The Constitution of India (1950), Article 41, states the ‘Right to Education and Work’ and Article 45 on ‘Free Compulsory Education for All Children up to the Age of 14 Years’, both Articles are inclusive of children with mental retardation. The Education Commission, 1964-66 directed to move education for persons with disabilities from that of the charity mode to one of the rights mode, hoping that at least 5 per cent of the persons with mental retardation should have received education by 1986. It lay emphasis on making persons with disabilities as useful citizens in their adult lives. The Commission further recommended that both special schools and schools in the integrated school system should include persons with disabilities. The present paper focused on the study of various policies and program of disabled children in India with the prime objectives are (i) To understand the concept of disabled children (ii) To understand the policies of disabled children in India. (iii) To discuss the programs of disabled children in India.