The first ever nationwide online schools quiz was launched recently, by Becta, the government agency for technology in education, in collaboration with the National Education Network (NEN). Thousands of primary school children, from across the country, participated in the the interactive online competition battling to become the 'Brainiest school in Britain'. The online competition took place on March 12, 2010. The winning student's school was awarded with up to UK
In Kerela, over 1.3 million students of Classes 10, 11 and 12 are to appear for the state public examinations beginning on 15th March 2010. For the smooth conduct of the exams class 10 and the Higher Secondary and Vocational Higher Secondary courses for Class 11 and 12, all preparations have been put in place, told the Director of Public Examination A.P.M. Mohammed Hanish. While the Class 10 examination is slated for the afternoon, the other two would be held in the forenoon. More than 4.5 lakh students are to appear for the Class 10 exam, 3.84 lakh in Class 11 and 4.15 lakh in the Class 12 Higher Secondary exams.
To deliver exam results faster to over three million students across India will get their exam results faster and more conveniently, the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) on 14th March 2010, created six zones to decentralize the evaluation of answer scripts. It was earlier centralised at IGNOU headquarters at New Delhi, since the inception of the university in 1985.
IGNOU currently has more than three million students. The respective evaluation centres are to handle the revaluation of answer script, photocopies of answer scripts and early declaration of results of term end examinations, after the decentralization. The evaluation centre at Delhi shall have jurisdiction within Delhi and all examination centres of Faridabad, Gurgaon, Noida and Ghaziabad. The Chennai centre shall have jurisdiction of all examination centres within Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu (area under Madurai Regional Centre) and Maharashtra (area under Pune RC), and Andaman & Nicobar Islands.
To increase the number of students in government schools and to reverse the trend of decreasing number of students, the Punjab School Education Department (PSEB), for the first time, a proactive strategy has been adopted by the latter. The department has made a decision of sending its teachers, including over 28,000 anganwari workers to convince parents of children, including those not part of anganwaris, to admit them in government primary schools.
Officials in the education department revealed that Krishan Kumar, Director General School Education, (DGSE), has issued instructions that all anganwari workers be taken on board of village education committees.
Project director, Bihar Education Project, and Secretary, information and public relations department, Rajesh Bhushan while addressing a seminar organised by the Human Rights Association of Bihar at Chandragupta Institute of Management Patna (CIMP), stressed on various shortfalls which needed special attention. He also spoke about the lack of infrastructure that includes both shortage of school buildings as well as teachers. He mentioned that many children in teh age of school going children were still out of school. He further said that as primary education under social agenda programme has always been a high priority of the respective state governments, the state should play a major role in implementing the Right to Education Act, in a more effective manner.
He said that after implementation of Right to Education Act, schools would not be allowed to take entrance examination, capitation fees and demanding birth certificates at the time of admission of children in Class 1. He further said that all unaided schools would provide free education to at least 25 % children from the neighbourhood, adding that such schools would be compensated by the state government for the losses that they would incur. This system is also to include 220 days of compulsory teaching in a year and 45 hours of minimum teaching in a week have been also incorporated in the said Act, Sinha said.
The University of the West Indies Distance Education Centre (UWIDEC) is offering an online course on Local e-Governance in the Caribbean for a third time.
The course would be offered for eleven weeks from 19 September to 2 December 2007. UWIDEC will also provide a limited number of scholarships which would be awarded on a competitive basis. The course does not require any formal tertiary or higher education qualification, but it does assume that participants will have relevant post-secondary experience and training. The first course was developed and run for the first time from September to December 2005 and the second, from April to June 2006, with the assistance and support of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
The Right to Education Act is to be implemented from April 1. HRD minister Kapil Sibal asked all the chief ministers to cooperate in universalising elementary education through a new message 'elementary education of equitable quality is now the right of every child' and a short awareness film. Making six suggestions, Sibal has chosen to launch RTE from Delhi. States have been asked to initiate social mapping exercises to ensure availability of neighbourhood schools.
Sibal has also asked CMs for special training for out-of-school children so that they can be enrolled in the age appropriate class. Since RTE stipulates a teacher student ratio of 1:30, Sibal has asked states to maintain it. To achieve the ratio, CMs have been asked to put in place a system of re-deployment of teachers to address the problem of imbalance in the teacher deployment, keeping in mind the domestic responsibility of the women teachers. Stressing on the importance of teachers in the implementation of RTE, Sibal has asked states to fill teacher vacancies. Sibal also stressed that states should prepare a plan that facilitates all untrained teachers.
Expected to get established in Bangalore, Azim Premji University (APU), is aiming at sharpening the existing skills of those working in education. Recently, the Bill on Karnataka's first private university was cleared by the Assembly. B S Yeddyurappa, Chief Minister, supported the Bill saying that it'll realize Premji's vision of contributing to quality universal education.
The university is driven by the foundation's vision to contribute towards a just, equitable, humane and sustainable society, help with systemic reforms and improve the education system. The university will offer long-term programmes (1-5 years) and short-term programmes. They will focus (in the first phase) on education and allied fields. The programmes will offer in-depth exposure, learning and research in areas like pedagogical methods, education technology, education management and child development. A residential campus is also on foundation's plan to enable community development.
The Common Core Standards for English and Mathematics, created by the Council of Chief State School Officers and the National Governors Association with encouragement from the Obama administration, may become national benchmarks for all K-12 students. Open for public opinion, the draft standards are a product of almost a year's worth of work, by April 2.
Most experts agree that the draft standards look pretty good. The standards are written in plain English, and the goals they set seem reasonable: For example, they say that kindergartners should learn to count, first-graders should be able to retell a story, and third-graders should learn fractions. Jack O'Connell, California Secretary of Education, called the standards 'rigorous.' These standards are to be the international benchmarks that are to help American students fight for tomorrow's global, mobile jobs.
