Deal strikes between K12 Inc. and Greenfield Public Schools to open Virtual Academy, Herndon

Corporate Updates

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August 19, 2010

One of the America's largest provider of proprietary curriculum and online school programmes for students in schools, K12 Inc.has announced on August 18, 2010, a new partnership with Greenfield Public Schools to launch Massachusetts' first full-time, statewide online public school. Within this scheme upto 500 students in grades from Kindergarten to standard eight across the Commonwealth, for the coming school year, will be catered to by the the Massachusetts Virtual Academy at Greenfield (MAVA@Greenfield). MAVA@Greenfield plans to expand to offer high school in subsequent years. The tuition-free public school is now accepting applications and will be hosting numerous information sessions for interested families and school districts.

In the begening of this year, the Massachusetts Legislature passed and Governor Deval Patrick signed into law an education reform bill aimed at transforming Massachusetts public schools by promoting more innovation and choice. The law included a provision enabling school districts to establish Innovation Schools to help improve student achievement and performance. Innovation schools give school districts more autonomy and flexibility to provide alternative education programs, including virtual schools, and increase public school options for students. In collboration with school districts and charter schools, respectively, K12 operates online public schools in 26 states and the District of Columbia. Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington state, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

Cisco Networking Academy Programme now in Cambodia

News

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digitalLEARNING Network

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August 19, 2010

It has been claimed by a dealer in networking that transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate, Cisco that it will be expanding the reach of their Cisco (News – Alert) Networking Academy programme to Cambodia with its launch at the University of Management and Economics. According to Cisco, the Cisco Networking Academy is a global education program that teaches students how to design, build, troubleshoot, and secure computer networks for increased access to career and economic opportunities in communities around the world.

Networking Academy provides online courses, interactive tools, and hands-on learning activities to help individuals prepare for ICT and networking careers in virtually every type of industry. Pheakdey Tun, the President of University of Management and Economics has mentioned that this deal with Cisco Networking Academy will enable them in building the skill level of their future workforce in the provinces and lead to Cambodia becoming a knowledge economy.

eSyllabi for teachers, says the new deal, Kenya

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digitalLEARNING Network

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August 19, 2010

Now new laptops can be bought by teachers that already contain current syllabus and training material, as a part of Public Private Partnership initiative which aims at integrating e-learning in the education system. A deal has been struck between Safaricom, Equity bank, Microsoft, Intel, Kenya Literature Bureau (KLB) and Kenya Institute of Education (KIE) and the Teachers Service Commission targeting about 240,000 teachers.

Loans are to be provided by the banks to purchase laptops that are inclusive of provision for internet services, courtesy Safaricom centres. Furthermore, the devices will be loaded with KIE syllabuses for both primary and secondary education provided by Microsoft. Dr James Mwangi, Equity Bank CEO, mentioned that for the same purpose, the institution has set aside Sh13 billion to be advanced to teachers for the purpose.

End of the scholarship scheme for poor students, by Finance Ministry

Policy Matters

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digitalLEARNING Network

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August 16, 2010

For the reasons of decrease in the bank interest rates, the government has decided to cancel the national means-cum-merit scholarship scheme that was meant to provide financial aid to 1 lakh gifted children whose parents' annual income was below INR 1.5 lakh. Funds of INR 1000 crore under the scholarship scheme were designed on the lines of the American model of scholarships, but now has been shut down.

The money from the scholarship fund had been provided quarter-annually to full time students of Class 9 from government, government-aided or local body schools. The students received the scholarship till the time they passed out of school after Class 12. According to the plans by the ministry, the idea for setting up the fund was to add INR 750 crore to the corpus fund for three consecutive financial years and increase the amount to INR 3000 crore. However, this had been unsuccessful as only INR 250 crore had been added tothe fund in 2009, making the total amount to INR 1000 crore.

In last five years, preschool fee has increased by 120 percent

K-12

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digitalLEARNING Network

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August 16, 2010

Through a survey, it has been discovered that between 2005 to 2010, the branded pre-schools across the country have managed to hike the fee structure to 120 percent. The average fees for the kindergarten segment have gone up from INR 1,500 to over 3,500 per month, the survey by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) described. It was found that there has been an increase of 150 percent in security deposit which is paid at the time of admission which it says has gone up from INR 10,000 in 2005 to over INR 25,000 at the beginning of academic session in 2010.

It was explined through the study that around 70 percent of the parents, from a total of over 6000 who were questioned, demanded a regulation from district education departments to stop the soaring fee structure. The survey also showed that branded pre-schools were concentrated in the metro cities and that parents with high disposable incomes, nuclear families and population growth were the reasons for this phenomenon.

New faculty member, 42 in number, join DTU

Higher Education

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digitalLEARNING Network

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August 16, 2010

There has been a recent recruitment of about 42 new faculty members at Delhi Technological University (DTU) as lecturers with the commencement of the new academic session. Out of these almost 23 faculty members are PhD degree holders. The new appointments have been made in different departments of the University such as Applied Chemistry, Applied Physics, Automobile Engineering, Electronics & Communication, Electrical Engineering, Engineering Physics, Environmental Engineering, School of Management, Production Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Information Technology, Biotechnology and Software Engineering.

The DTU Vice Chancellor P.B. Sharma has advised the newly recruited faculty members to maintain lecture notes and use modern-day teaching methodologies to enhance the learning experience of students. Alongside with teaching, the recruits will also be enaged in activities for the overall development of their department and undertake research and consultancy work in their domain area.

MoU signed between NIT Rourkela and Vedanta Aluminium Ltd

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digitalLEARNING Network

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August 16, 2010

For research purposes, the National Institute of Technology – Rourkela (NITR) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Vedanta Aluminium Limited (VAL), recently. The aim of the MoU is to develop technologies that aid in recovering iron oxide from waste that has been generated from the alumina industry. The memorandum was signed by NITR Director Sunil Kumar Sarangi and Chief Operating Officer of Vedanta Aluminium Ltd.

Mukesh Kumar. As an initial deposit for conducting research, VAL had presented the institute with a cheque of INR 21.2 lakh. There has been a set up of an alumina refinery has been set up at Lanjigarh in Orissa by VAL, with production capacity of one million tonnes per annum and, after it has been established successfully, the new technology would be available to be implemented across other alumina refineries under VAL. An exchange of expertise between the institute and the company for future research via M.Tech or Ph.D programmes as well as for skill upgradation has also been included in thememorandum of understanding.

New asteroid discovery by Delhi School boys

K-12

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digitalLEARNING Network

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August 16, 2010

A new asteroid has been identified by two Delhi students as part of a unique astronomy project connected to the US space agency National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Small planet like objects called as asteroids are generally found moving in orbits, around the sun, located between Mars and Jupiter. Sometimes these are nudged by gravitational forces out of their orbits and can come into contact with Earth. Amanjot Singh and Sahil Wadhwa, both Class 12 students of Ryan International School, discovered a main belt asteroid (2010 PO24) on August 6 as part of the All India Asteroid Search Campaign (AIASC).

The campaign conducted between May 17 and June 30 and from July 1 to August 13, was introduced in India for the first time and about 30-45 schools were involved in it. This year 11 countries on four continents participated in it. Behind involving school students in the project was the Science Popularization Association of Communicators and Educators (SPACE) along with the International Astronomical Search Collaboration (IASC), an international educational outreach programme.

All Medical Colleges to have Single entrance exam

Higher Education

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digitalLEARNING Network

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August 16, 2010

It was recently conveyed to the Supreme Court on Friday, that the Medical Council of India (MCI) has taken a decision to introduce one common entrance test for all medical courses in India has been accepted by the Union Ministry and would be introduced from the next year, that is, 2011. This entrance exam is to be applicable for a total of 30,000 MBBS seats and over 11,000 MD seats in 138 government run medical colleges as well as 133 private medical institutes. This decisions has given the medical school aspirants a breath of relief.

The number of medical entrance examinations that students had to appear for had been the cause of major confusion among students. This had led to several students thronging to the Supreme Court every year to complain against the system which had caused them to miss out on seats even if they had made a little mistake.

INR 54.2 crore for renovation at Jamia and including 3G network services

Higher Education

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digitalLEARNING Network

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August 13, 2010

A special grant has been allocated by the University Grants Commission (UGC) of INR 54.2 crore for Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) University to renovate and to provide high speed internet servers, 2G and 3G network services in the campus.

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