Intel expanding its teacher-training programme in Malaysia
Chipmaker Intel Corp is further expanding its successful IT-assisted teacher-training programme in Malaysia. Intel said it has trained a small but significant percentage of teachers in the last eight years and hopes to double that to 100,000 teachers over the next five years.
Introduced in Malaysia in 2000, the programme has so far trained about 50,000 local teachers. Lim Siew Geck, a lecturer and head of the IT unit of the educational technology department at Institut Perguruan Ilmu Khas (IPIK), said the response to the Intel programme has been very favourable. ‘We have many pre-service and in-service teachers who are even willing to come for night classes.’
Singapore-based international school to open in Nagpur
Singapore-based Global Indian International School is now set to open a branch in Nagpur, Maharashtra, an announcement by Global Indian Foundation (GIF), which operates the largest pan-Asian educational institution chain, said. GIIS Nagpur will be the first school in the city to offer a choice of both International Baccalaureate (IB) and CBSE courses for students.
Set up in 2002 with 48 students in Singapore, GIIS schools today have become source of quality education reaching over 17000 students through its 17 campuses spread all over the Asia Pacific region.
Vietnam bags a silver award at APICTA 08
Vietnam’s ‘Using VSAT IP Solution to Bring Broadband Internet to the Countryside’ solution won a silver medal at the Asia Pacific Information and Communications Technology Awards 2008. APICTA is the annual awards initiated by the Multimedia Development Corporation of Malaysia to increase ICT awareness in the community and assist in bridging the digital divide in the Asia-Pacific.
This year, APICTA was organised in Jakarta, Indonesia from November 11-15, with the participation of 11 countries and territories (Vietnam, Singapore, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Thailand, Macau, Malaysia, Australia and Brunei). Among 144 products and solutions brought to the contest, Vietnam had only two. One of the solution, ‘Using VSAT IP Technology to Bring Broadband Internet to the Countryside’ won the silver award.
CSE Festival 2008 held at Bangladesh University
Bangladesh University of Engineering & Technology (BUET) organised the National Collegiate Programming Contest (NCPC) under the Department of Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) as a part of its annual CSE Festival 2008. The festival serves as a platform for building relationships among BUET, other universities, and the IT industry.
Through the festival every year, BUET tries to showcase its talent pool among the best in the industry and also create a national awareness in the field. A total of 47 teams from different private and public universities participated in the contest. While BUET received the first position, Dhaka University secured the second position, and North South University grabbed the third.
Singapore high school to introduce India Studies programme
India’s economic growth has spurred one of Singapore’s leading high schools to introduce an India studies programme to give its students a better understanding of the history, culture and politics of Asia’s awakening giant. The Victoria Junior College (VJC), a much sought-after high school in Singapore, will offer the course as a subject for the A-level examinations in 2009, school officials said.
The India studies programme would give students a broad foundation on the history, culture and political system in India, familiarising them with one of the world’s top economies, said Chan Poh Meng, principal, VJC. Apart from India’s economic rise, what has got the students and teachers of the school excited about learning more about the country is the growing engagement between India and Singapore.
New e-Learning center in Quezon City, Philippines
The Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT) has opened its seventh e-Learning center in Loyola Heights under its eSkwela project. The CICT, through its Human Capital Development Group (CICT HCDG), launched eSkwela in 2005 to provide disadvantaged youth with educational opportunities to help reduce the digital divide and enhance their capacity to be successful participants in a global and knowledge-based economy. The Loyola Heights center received an enrollment of 55 learners, mostly aged below 20.
The eSkwela project hopes to provide opportunity for Filipino out-of-school youths and adults (OSYAs) to go back to school
