A.Raja, Minister of Communications and Information Technology presented awards to the winners of the Fourth Computer Literacy Excellence Awards for Schools(CLEAS)-2005 and said, the focus of the Ministry is to “Catch Them Young” to inculcate IT knowledge and skills at school level itself. This, he hoped, would ensure that creativity and innovation are nurtured at a young age and in the long run would lead to the quality levels of graduates and post-graduates coming out of higher educational institutions.
The Computer Literacy Excellence Awards Scheme for schools is an attempt to bring India’s children at par with young achievers of the world. There are two category of awards – one for Private/Government aided school and another for Government/Municipal school. The 51 State/UT level awardees have created a benchmark of excellence in computer education for the rest of the schools across India to follow.
Following is the list of award winners
Category ‘A’ – Private/Government Aided Schools
St Joseph’s High School, Guntur; Notre Dame Academy, pataliputra, Patna; O.P.Jindal School,Raigarh; Damodar English School, Gudi Paroda, Post Quepem; Swastick’s Sattvavikas School, Ahmedabad; Salwan Public School,Gurgaon; DAV Sr.Sec.Public School,Lakkar Bazar,Shimla; K.C.Public School,Akhnoor Road,Jammu; Canara English Higher Primary School, Mangalore; Christ Nagar English Higher Secondary School,Kaudia PO Thiruvananthapuram; Sagar Public School,Bhopal; Purushottam English School and Aarambha Mahavidyalaya, Nasik; Catholic School,Canchipur,MU,Imphal; Synod Higher Secondary School,Mission Veng, Aizawal; DAV Public School,Unit 8,Bhubaneswar; Mayo College,Ajmer; St.Xavier’s School,PO Pakyong East; City Montessori School,Lucknow; Sherwood College,Nanital; DAV Model School,IIT Kharagpur, Kharagpur; Vivek High School,Chandigarh; Shri Machhi Mahajan English Medium School,Nani Daman; Fr.AgneloEnglish School, Silvassa; DAV Public School, Pitampura; and Amalorpavam Higher Secondary School,Vanarapet.
Category ‘B’ – Government/Municipal Schools
Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya,Visakhapatnam; Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya,Koasi; Kendriya Vidyalaya,Kirandul; Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya,Canacona,South Goa; Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya,Trapaj Bungalow,Bhavnagar; Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Village Mothuka (Ballabgarh); Govt. Girls Senior Secondary School, Portmore,Shimla; Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya,Mesra,Ranchi; Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya,Gajanur, Distt.Shimoga; Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya PO Malampuzha, Distt.Palakkad; Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, PO Pawarkhea,Distt. Hoshangabad; Jawahar Navodaya VidyalayaVidyalaya,Distt.Washim; Kendriya Vidyalaya No.1 Imphal (W); Govt.Pianghleia Secondary High School,Aizawal; Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, PO Kalamati, Distt.Sambalpur; Govt.Girls Sr.Sec.School,New Power House Colony,Patiala; G.U.P.S. Mammar Khera,Sri Ganganagar; Sang Govt.Sr.Sec.School,PO Sang East; Kirit Bikram Institution, Udaipur, South Tripura; Govt.Jubilee Inter College,Gorakhpur; Rashtriya Indian Military College, Dehradun; Kendriya Vidyalaya No.1 Salt Lak, Kolkata; Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Chandigarh; Rajkiya Pratibha Vikas Vidyalaya, Lodhi Road,Delhi; Govt. High School,Androth Island, Lakshadweep; Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya,Yanam, Puducherry.
All India Award was bagged by Vivek High School, Chandigarh. In the National Award Category ‘A’ the rankings are: (i) City Mongessory School,Lucknow; (ii) DAV Public School, Pitampura, Delhi; (iii) Swastik’s Sattvavikas School,Ahmedabad. In the National Award Category ‘B’ the rankings are: (i) Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalay,Gajanur PO,Distt.Shimoga Distt; (ii) Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya,Visakhaptnam; (iii) Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, PO Kalamati, Distt.Sambalpur.
The Department of Information Technology, in the year 2002 has instituted an Award Scheme for Excellence in Computer Literacy and Information Technology in schools at State and national level to create IT awareness among schools and to encourage computer literacy among students in early stage of schooling. All recognised schools in India, Government and Private, teaching computers and information technology in their schools are eligible to compete for the award. The last date for submission of applications for CLEAS-2007 by school is 14 November 2007. The applications form is available at www.mit.gov.in.
Such awards are for giving recognition to the leading schools. This would motivate the teachers and students of the schools and maintain a healthy competition among the various schools and motivate the management of these schools to provide more incentives to the teachers and students.
UNESCO King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa Prize for the Use of ICT in Education
Belgium and U.S.A. based projects win for 2007
The Belgium-based Claroline Project – The Claroline Consortium and Curriki: The Global Education and Learning Community, based in the U.S.A., have been named as the laureates of this year’s King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa Prize for the Use of ICT in Education. They were selected by the Director-General of UNESCO, Koïchiro Matsuura, on the recommendation of an international jury.
The Claroline Project – The Claroline Consortium (represented by the Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium) provides an open-source platform to 900 institutions in 84 countries and in 35 languages. Claroline is a catalyst for the effective delivery of interactive and learner-centred instruction. With the continuous addition of new tools and functions from participating schools and institutions around the world, it provides a robust, open-source learning management system that is easily adapted and customized to meet the needs of educational institutions in different countries. Two thousand online courses are available for open sharing through the network.
Curriki combines the notion of curriculum with the concept of wiki, a collaborative website whose content can be edited by all users. Curriki, a global education and learning community, was created by Sun Microsystems in 2004 but has since become a non-profit organisation. It is a comprehensive Internet portal, tool set and user service designed to develop, aggregate, evaluate and support the best open source curricula, catering for the requirements of all age groups and all learning interests. It has a comprehensive online, open and collaborative repository of educational resources that enables learners, teachers and parents to add content to existing curricula. Curriki’s 5,000 learning objects in many languages are used regularly by 30,000 people.
The Director-General of UNESCO will present the prize – a diploma and USD25,000 each – to the two laureates in a ceremony at Organisation Headquarters on 19 December. The laureates were chosen from among 68 projects from 51 countries and one international nongovernmental organisation focusing on the theme of open access to education. The Prize is placed under the patronage of HM King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa of the Kingdom of Bahrain.
Honourable mentions will also be given to Sésamath Project, Mexico. Sésamath is a comprehensive mathematics curriculum developed by a community of experts, designers and close to 300 mathematics teachers.
Enciclomedia is a basic easy-to-use platform installed in 145,000
classrooms in state primary schools in Mexico, including the most remote and poor areas, as well as in 13 other Latin America countries. It enriches curricula by providing digital multimedia resources such as images, maps, virtual visits, video, audio, music, animations, and interactive learning
activities. The platform has helped train 120,000 teachers in the use of ICTs in just two years
