Government to Review Political Science Textbooks

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May 17, 2012

The government has set up a panel headed by former UGC chairman and present chairman of Indian Council of Social Science Research SK Thorat to review NCERT’s political science textbooks for schools.

The members of the committee are AS Narang of School of Social Sciences IGNOU, Patricia Mukhim, the Editor Shillong times and social worker, Prof MSS Pandian Chennai, teacher of social science of Sanskriti School Abha Malik and Saroj Yadav who is the Head of department of education in social science, NCERT.

As per NCERT notification, the committee will review class IX to XII social science/political science textbooks of NCERT from the point of view of identifying educationally inappropriate material.

Indian Schools Adopt Cloud

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May 17, 2012

In a move to provide superior education to students with collaborative learning tools, reputed schools like Delhi Public School, American School of Bombay, KR Mangalam have adopted Microsoft Live@edu, a cloud based service. Microsoft Live@edu enables institutions in brand building, social and professional collaboration, knowledge repository that leads to career opportunities.

Microsoft Live@edu is a no-charge suite of communication and collaboration tools for students, faculty, staff and alumni that enable access to Microsoft Office Outlook Live for e-mail, Microsoft Office Live Workspace to share documents and collaborate, Windows Live Messenger for instant messaging, and Windows Live SkyDrive for 25 GB of online data storage space.

After evaluating several solutions to bring collaboration amongst the academician and administrator and finally embracing Microsoft’s cloud based email over Google. “ The cost of deploying a school wide messaging solution, which would cover over 5,017 students, 220 teachers, and 52 administrators would not have been feasible just from the sheer cost of acquisition and maintenance,” explains M.I.Hussain, Principal, DPS Mathura Road. “However, Live@edu brings the school at par with global institutions at no extra cost.”

“Alumni network plays an important role in building contact and resolving student queries about real life job environment.Live@edu has enabled our students to connect with alumni’s to share and learn from their experience. This helps them get first-hand information on the business aspect of life, thus enabling them to be job ready. With increased e-mail storage, students also get the option to keep reference material with them, at all times,” said Inder Dev Gupta, Chairman of KR Mangalam School, New Delhi.

As schools deal with and manage highly sensitive student data, managing data security and privacy becomes of foremost interest to the IT department without increasing their IT management cost and time. The American School of Bombay currently has about 1000 mailboxes, with over 50% usage. “With Live@Edu, we experienced highly dependable, highly secure world-class communications and collaboration infrastructure. By using this cross platform cloud based service, students are able to easily access and stay updated with the latest information both on and off campus,” said Mario Fishery, Sr. IT Manager (Network, Security & Systems) at the American School of Bombay.

“It is encouraging to see schools adopting and promoting a technology-enhanced environment. Microsoft Live@edu simplifies online collaboration, increases productivity with its ability to participate in online tutorials, collaborate on assignments, interacting with peers and faculty, and build lifelong relationships with their educational institution. We have a huge base of mailboxes activated across schools and colleges in the country,” said Tarun Malik, Director, Product Marketing, Microsoft India.

“Cloud adoption is gravitating schools as it allows opportunities seamlessly integrating digital lifestyle to support their academic work style. Cloud adoption is gravitating schools as it allows for possibilities of seamlessly integrating their digital lifestyle to support their academic work style. It is exciting to see students, educators and IT administrators collaborating through Live@edu to enrich the learning experience and to prepare students for future success. This gives them an edge as they enter the competitive job market,” added Malik, Director, Product Marketing, Microsoft India.

Kozhikode Registers Highest Pass Percentage in Higher Secondary Exam

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May 17, 2012

Kozhikode, a major city in the state of Kerala in southern India has clocked highest pass percentage in the state with 90.96 per cent in higher secondary examination 2012.

Of the total 26,461 students who appeared for exam, 24,068 qualified for higher studies. There has also been an increase in schools in which all the students have passed the exam. Thirteen out of the total of 167 schools registered cent per cent pass compared to four last year.

Schools of the state that have registered cent per cent pass include St Joseph Anglo Indian GHSS, JDT HSS, MM Boys HSS, Himayathul Islam HSS, SH HSS, Shri Gujarathi Vidyalaya HSS, Hi-tech Higher Secondary School, Memunda HSS, Viliappalli Calicut School for Handicapped, Kulathur Sree Narayana HSS, Vatakara, Vanereni EM HSS Feroke and Chinmaya Vidyalaya HSS, Nellikode.

In the technical school category the district registered 94.07 per cent pass with 111 out of the 118 students who appeared for the exam qualifying for higher education. Pass percentage in the open school category is 55 per cent with 6,592 students out of the 11,982 qualifying for higher education.

In the vocational higher secondary school category the district registered 83.6 per cent pass with 1,866 students emerging eligible for higher education.

Delhi Government Initiates Admission for EWS Students

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May 17, 2012

While we are reporting stories of a few schools that are not able to take EWS students in this academic year, the Delhi government has already started the process of taking EWS students.

They have started filling up the vacant seats in private schools for children belonging to EWS section into preschool and at pre primary classes.

Education Minister Arvinder Singh Lovely said although admission of students belonging to general category came to an end on March 31, the enrolment of students under the EWS category would continue till July 31.

He said according to the provisions of Right to Education Act, admission can continue throughout the year.

“Government will ensure that each and every child belonging to EWS category gets admission in these schools,” Lovely said after a high-level meeting with top officials of his department.

Lovely said strict directives have been issued to all concerned officials for total compliance of order relating to filling up of 25 per cent EWS category seats in private schools.

The Education department has already uploaded list of vacant seats in pre school and pre primary classes under EWS category in various schools.

He directed the officials of Education Department to give an advertisement in the leading newspapers regarding school-wise vacancies under EWS category.

“These seats belonging to EWS category would be filled as per the rules and regulations of RTE Act,” he said.

Education department has received scores of complaints against private schools regarding alleged violations of mandatory reservation of 25 per cent seats for EWS category students.

ICSE and CBSE Schools Are Unable to Follow RTE Act This Year

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May 17, 2012

The Karnataka Federation of Independent Schools’ Management (KFISM) Associations, that has 284 CBSE and ICSE schools under its umbrella, has decided to leave it to the state government to suggest them if they must cancel out 25 per cent of the admissions made so far, to make way for the economically weaker section quota students under RTE.

LR Shivramegowda, President, KFISM said, “We welcome the Act, but it is highly unlikely that the member schools will be able to implement the Act this academic year. There are 132 ICSE and 152 CBSE schools under the association and all of them completed the admission process in October. We have a practical problem, and want the government to give us a solution. If the government directs us to nullify 25 per cent of our admissions, we are ready,” said LR Shivramegowda, president, KFISM.

Around 100 members of KFISM met on Wednesday to decide on the next step of the implementation of RTE. The federation also cited the SC’s judgment, stating that status quo should be maintained on the completed admissions. Shivramegowda said, “We are not seeking any legal remedy. ICSE and CBSE schools do not come under the Karnataka Education Act, so there was no question of us following the admission calendar issued by the government. If the government had notified us in time, this problem would never have occurred”.

Indian e-Learning Course Catches Students Fancy Worldwide

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May 17, 2012

Centre for Environment, Planning and Technology (CEPT) University in Ahmadabad has been receiving good responses from the students worldwide. As a recent report reveals the e-learning course offered by the university is attracting students eyeball, globally.

People who are more than 50 years old, architects, government employees, self-employed workers, private sector personnel and even learners from foreign countries are all enrolling on the e-learning program.

Course director at CEPT Professor Sejal Patel claimed around one-fifth of all participants come from nations such as Bhutan, Nepal, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Belgium and Sri Lanka.

Furthermore, other people are in senior positions within the state, including members of the Ministry of Urban Development, the Ahmadabad Urban Development Authority and groups such as Poverty Alleviation, he shared.

Professor Saswat Bandopadhyay, chair of CEPT’s Centre for Continuing Education has said that virtual learning environments used to be generally accessed by men. However, at present, 46 per cent of the participants are female, he stated, pointing out “the enrollment is almost in an equal ratio”.

Some of the popular course titles the academic facility provides include Urban Infrastructure Planning, Urban Planning, Environment and Sustainable Development and Environmental Impact Assessment.

Around 25 per cent of the people involved in these programs are engineers, while a further 15 per cent come from a scientific background, Professor Bandopadhyay added.

Celebrating innovation and enterprise in Digital Learning Asia 2006

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May 16, 2012

The Internet has unleashed the infinite and often bottled potentials among its users opening doors for rapid learning, human creativity, information access, and global communication. When did these possibilities actually translate into widespread public access to the Internet? It is difficult to specify a date, but one can identify a few key developments and the key actors behind those developments. In Word Matters: multicultural perspectives on information societies, the coordinators, Alain Ambrosi, Valérie Peugeot and Daniel Pimienta share the developing countries perspectives of moving to a knowledge society. In the utopian definition of an information society, access to technology will not be a barrier, nor the diversity of languages, nor capacity to adapt to new innovations and rapid turnover of the technologies. A vibrant and able community of practitioners, who have integrated the new mediums, just as we brush our teeth daily, will nurture this. All this is possible with the concept of sharing knowledge, building collaborations and creating exchanges of information and experiences in a seamless fashion, through inter-operable modes and making it possible to build on the strengths of those countries, regions or communities who are ahead of the others and quickly catching up. Asia is at the brink of such a revolution. Countries in Asia have rapidly adapted to the new world information order and are focussing on education as a key thrust to build a knowledge pool, preparing to service the global needs and responding to growth opportunities. Yet divides remain, and challenges need to be overcome. The papers in this conference special of the Digital Learning Magazine come in the week of Digital Learning Asia 2006, highlighting the essence of the discussions in the conference. The effort is not to reinvent the wheel, but learn from the mistakes of the past. For example, Singapore, Japan and Hong Kong who have had major successes in the effective use of ICTs for education both for learning improvements and also education management can share their experiences with other developing countries in Asia. In Vietnam and Thailand, educational policies and processes are needed to be reformed to upscale the successful project and to coalesce these with other policies ertaining to economics, social development and poverty reduction and science technology. The Digital Learning Asia 2006 is an important effort to network and building a collective vision. It is not just an event – it’s a process of networking among people who have the experiences in the policymaking, technologists, practitioners in the NGO sector, the private sector etc. The entire ecosystem players have an opportunity to interact, learn, share and foster alliances and collaborations. And the magazine is the platform to continue these linkages for building the Knowledge capital for Asian countries.

IGNOU Former VC Receives Honorary Doctorate

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May 16, 2012

Dr Abdul Waheed Khan, former Vice Chancellor, Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) has received an honorary doctorate by the UK Open University at its convocation.

Dr Khan, who is President of Talal Abu Ghazaleh University of Business, has been a global champion in using open and distance education, combined with the power of communications technologies, to narrow the gap between rich and poor nations.

For nearly ten years he led the communication and information sector at UNESCO, where he was responsible for developing the communication of and access to knowledge, using the media and information and communication technologies. The various projects he has led have drawn on power of today’s information society to foster socially responsible economic growth in developing nations. And perhaps just as importantly, in his UNESCO role he has provided global leadership in the promotion of freedom of expression and press freedom, media independence and pluralism.

It’s likely that his birth in a remote village in India gave him an early appreciation of the importance of communications technology in bridging distance, especially in rural areas. When in his twenties and newly graduated, he developed a Centre of Excellence in Agricultural Communication, which was based at India’s top agricultural university, GB Pant, and was recognized for its work by UNESCO and the United Nations Development Program.

Then as director of programs for India’s premier communicator, All India Radio, he launched the on-air Farm School, which made it possible for farmers in remote areas to learn how to improve their agricultural techniques.

Tackling the Problem of Skills-Deficit

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May 16, 2012

“Industry-academia partnership plays an important part in mitigating the skills crunch. Training individuals to make them job-ready will not only make a difference in their lives, it will also lead to enrichment of our communities,” says Rajeev Shorey, President, NIIT University, in conversation with Pragya Gupta

Foreign collaborations have been among the key academic elements of educational institutes today. Can you highlight the initiatives of NIIT University (NU) in this regard?

TNIIT University recognises the fact that innovation does not stop at national borders; we believe that developing close relationships with like-minded institutions of higher learning across the globe will enhance the domestic educational environment. In its endeavour to strengthen a symbiotic relationship with eminent Universities, NU has signed memorandum of understanding with Nanjing University of Finance and Economics, China, Aalborg University, Centre for Teleinfrastruktur(CTIF), Denmark, and Changshu Institute of Technology, China

These mutually beneficial agreements are designed to initiate joint research programs, seminars, conference projects, industrial projects, exchange of information projects, training and internship projects for staff and students. These programmes also enhance the global perspective of our students by enabling them to develop an understanding of different cultures.

What are your views on the process of subsuming various regulatory bodies for a common regulatory body?

The Higher Education and Research Bill, 2011, introduced by Human Resource Development Minister, Kapil Sibal, seeks to promote autonomy of higher educational institutions and universities for free pursuit of knowledge and innovation. The NCHER will subsume all existing regulatory bodies, including UGC, AICTE and Council of Distance Education. The Bill also provides for comprehensive and integrated growth of higher education and research keeping in view the global standard of educational and research practices.

Currently, there are more than 11 million students enrolled for higher education in more than 600 universities and 24,000 colleges. In the next 5 years, Indian government expects 700 new universities and 10,000 colleges to be built mostly by the private sector. In such a scenario, it is becoming increasingly important to have a regulatory system that will ensure quality of higher education in India.

We welcome this initiative which is a step towards building autonomous, qualitative and integrated institutions. This will accelerate the approval procedure and create a unified regulatory system. If the new regulatory body is constituted in a transparent manner, India can have a transparent and unified higher education system.

I hope the bill will bring about transformation in the higher education sector in near future by building a strong and vibrant higher education system that can contribute towards development of the country.

“I strongly feel that Information and Communication Technology will play a key role in making higher education Accessible, Effective and Efficient. Since inception, NIIT has innovatively used technology to offer quality education”

Do you think Industry Academia Partnership is important to provide employable skills for students? What are the linkages of NIIT University with the industry?

In India, there is a mismatch in what the industry needs and what the universities are creating. One of the approaches to tackle the problem of skills-deficit in fresh graduates is partnerships between the industry and academia. It is widely held that knowledge, skills, and resourcefulness of people are critical to sustain development, economic and social activity in a knowledge based society. Given the current high-paced growth and dynamic investment climate in India, the demand for knowledge workers with high levels of technical and soft skills is only bound to increase.

In response to these challenges, many companies today have intensified their academic interventions in order to tackle the impeding shortage of knowledge workers. Industry-academia partnership plays an important part in mitigating the skills crunch. Training individuals to make them job-ready will not only make a difference in their lives, it will also lead to enrichment of our communities.

At NIIT University we are focused on building great careers, hence extensive connectedness to the industry is the hallmark of the University. In fact, proving industry-linked education to our students is one of the four core principles of NU.

What are the initiatives of NIIT University to achieve the objectives of the national skills development mission?

NIIT University has already practised a concept of “education at work” at M Tech level. For us M Tech is not a vocational education, the University has a unique system of integrating work with education, which is scalable and applicable to any sector of economy.

Several studies indicate that an overwhelming percentage of students passing out from engineering colleges and B-schools lack skills needed to start working. How can this be tackled by higher education institutes?

Today, most companies want to recruit fresh graduates who are industry ready in every sense. As per NASSCOM estimates, of all Engineering graduates, only 25 percent will be ready with desired skill sets to be employable by the industry. Hence, top scores, latest technology skills, international certifications and relevant industry exposure is the need of the hour for every engineering and IT graduate.

What are your views on ICT usage in education?

We are living in an age where technology has touched every aspect of our lives including how we access information, the way we communicate with each other, and how we carry out research and development. Hence it is hardly surprising that ICT usage in education is increasingly gaining importance in India. Ready availability of multimedia, computers and Internet has opened up several interesting teaching-learning possibilities. As a result the importance of IT-enabled education has increased many folds. Use of IT in education has enabled students to understand the concepts better and apply them in practical life.

What kind of ICT solutions are being used by the University for teaching and administration purposes?

I strongly feel that Information and Communication Technology will play a key role in making higher education Accessible, Effective and Efficient. Since inception, NIIT has innovatively used technology to offer quality education. In fact, providing “Technology based” education to its students is one of the four core principles of NIIT University to achieve the excellence in education. Amongst its various other initiatives, NIIT offers synchronous learning based Executive Management programmes from India’s top B schools through NIIT Imperia. It is an effective technological tool to bring together the faculty and students, who are otherwise separated by significant distances. Through the new high-tech environment, students can experience learning almost in the same way as they would if they were in a normal classroom. They can ask questions from their instructor and learn about the answers.

“RTE Can Also be a Tool of Harassment”

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May 16, 2012

By Pragya Gupta, Elets News Network (ENN)

Sujit Bhattacharya, Director, Indus World School

On Supreme Court’s verdict on RTE

As a private school operator we see great merit in the role of RTE to create a more inclusive educational climate in our country. The government has to now play the role being a true facilitator of this act by creating transparent and robust norms of implementation, especially on reimbursement of costs to private schools. RTE must not become a tool in the hands of officials to harass private schools. We at Indus World Schools have already implemented RTE in our classes and we are very happy to partner the government in nation building. I hope the government also reciprocates by implementing clean and open processes and creating prompt payment systems so that the entire society promotes the idea of RTE rather than to find faults with it.

Expectations from the government

If the government gives the reasonable compensation for that 25 percent then private schools can do a wonderful. The current norms, which have been spoken about have to be looked at more seriously because the cost of education in a government schools are many times cheaper as they offer basic form of education whereas cost of education in any private school which is aspiring to a quality is different. By using the simple benchmark of saying that whatever government schools are charging will be paid to the private schools will be paid the same it way rob the opportunity from private school to provide the quality education. This is what government needs to look at.

RTE can also be a tool of harassment in the hands of some lower level government officers. That is something government should think on very seriously. The education affects so many people and it can easily be misused. The kind of power has been given to district level officer can be misused in terms of approving the payment, in terms of approving the eligibility, payments, reimbursements, etc. There should be very clear norms, which are transparent, robust and easy to compliance. I do not want my school admin person to follow up with government official 20 times for payments. That should not happen as we are not a construction company who know how to deal with babus and clerks.

The second aspect is about how the economically weaker children will be intermingled with children of other section. There are psychology and social issues. In my opinion, at the younger ages like Nursery and KG children by enlarge do not understand these differences. If Schools are sensitive to this and train teachers and it can happen in a smooth way. Schools have to be sensitive about dealing with it in terms of training the teachers and sending the right messages to the parents so that as a society we will learn how to cooperate. However, RTE impacts on higher education grades. If suddenly student from a very different background enter into the school it can have ramification on the psychological well being of children of both side. Both will find difficult to cooperate with each other. If happens gradually they can settle down very well. Government should not rush to implement the RTE in higher grades.

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