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ICT education seeked by stakeholders

Information and Communications Technology (ICT) stakeholders in the country have called for a sound ICT-education in the country's tertiary institutions, in order to sustain its growth and development. The call was made at a summit organised by the Association of Telecommunication Companies of Nigeria (ATCON). According to ATCON, there has been a declining standard in ICT education in the country, a situation it said, is affecting the teaching of basic skills in ICT education. President of ATCON, Emmanuel Ekuwem, lamented the poor state of ICT education in the country, which he said, is largely responsible for the high rate of unemployment of the Nigerian graduates. He noted that the unemployment situation in the country's ICT industry is a result of the un-employability of job seekers, whom he said, do not have basic practical training while in school, because of the poor state of the country's educational system, especially that of ICT education. First Vice President, ATCON, Bayo Banjo, said that the deteriorating state of the country's ICT education has saddled greater responsibility on employers who had taken it upon themselves to retrain young graduates on some basic skills, before they become employable.

Speaking at the one-day ICT Education Summit, the Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) Ernest Ndukwe, said Nigeria must be part of the global village which is fast moving. Ndukwe noted that India makes a lot of revenue by ICT outsourcing, which he said was through proper ICT training. He added, 'With sound ICT education, Nigeria can start exporting ICT manpower to other countries.' The EVC of NCC also said that employing ICT in schools would help the students have access to information for their studies, adding that the Internet offers students the tools to share educational contents for sound learning. Ndukwe said, 'The world is at your doorstep, all you need is to get educated in the way of equipping yourself with the Internet and you will be for by companies.' Earlier, in his opening remarks, Ekuwem said Nigeria digital revolution cannot hold without competent manpower to manage the industry. 'An industry without a sufficiently available critical mass skilled manpower and expertise is unsustainable,' said Ekuwem.

Ambedkar varsity has big plans for future

After making a small start last year with the launch of a postgraduate diploma programme in development studies, Ambedkar University, Delhi, is now set to take another step towards achieving its academic vision. The varsity will launch three new masters programmes

Open University partners with Partnership Development Solutions

The Open University (OU) has appointed a key business consultancy, Partnership Development Solutions, to help more employers bring learning to the workplace. The OU's Corporate and Employer Services division will be working in partnership with Partnership Development Solutions (PDS), who will act as a broker in identifying opportunities within the IT and telecoms sectors, key target areas for the OU's employer engagement programme. PDS is an independent business consultancy that specialises in developing and running apprenticeship programmes for major blue chip employers in the ICT and Telecoms sector. Its clients include Virgin Media, 02, Ericsson and Arqiva.

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Commenting on the new partnership Bob Coates, the OU's Executive Director for the IT/Telecoms employer engagement programme, said, 'In difficult economic times, the Open University solution has significant cost reduction benefits for employers as minimum time is spent away from the workplace. Now PDS will play a pivotal roles in reaching organisations that require our wide range of courses for higher education, professional qualifications and bespoke in-company training solutions.'

U-turn taken by States: Say yes to sex education

While the Committee on Petitions has recommended that there should be no sex education in schools, states that had earlier banned the manual claiming it would have a corrupting influence on young minds have now taken a U-turn. Out of the eight states

USAID funds education inSenegal

The US Agency for International Development (USAID) has granted US$38 million to Senegal for five years (2208-2013) for the education sector in the West African state. The announcement came from the USAID Director, Kevin Mullaly during a round table of business companies which support the cause of education in the country. The support will be provided in several ways: access of vulnerable children to basic quality education; the definition and implementation of curricula; improving governance and education management; increased access of teachers and students to ICT; and greater involvement of the private sector in the sector of education through a partnership public private.

The thrust of the meeting was to convince other companies to raise US$6 million to supplement the USAID/ Basic Education. Mullaly said the additional resources will help give 35,000 students a two-week orientation, give 4,000 students the opportunity to visit companies and 5,000 company managers to go round school facilities. He called for a well thought partnership between the private and public sectors, noting that for the partnership to be stronger, it should be hinged on a public/private partnership on the policies and strategies to be implemented.


Private schools get releif on fee hike from Delhi Courts

Private schools in the capital on Thursday got relief from the Delhi High Court as it stayed a Delhi government move to impose conditions on fee hike. A division bench of Justice A.K. Sikri and Justice Suresh Kait stayed the government's public notice and asked it to file by May 26 a detailed reply to the objections raised by the schools. According to the public notice, the schools will have to seek approval of the parent-teacher associations (PTAs) before deciding on a fee hike. Based on PTAs' recommendations, they would have to approach the Directorate of Education (DoE) to review their case and allow them a hike. The court expressed its displeasure as the government did not respond, despite the court's direction, to a plea by a group of parents and asked it to reply by May 26, the next date of hearing.

Earlier, the court termed the fee hike by private, unaided schools in the capital was 'highly objectionable.' 'This (hike in fees) is highly objectionable. Let there be some examination on the whole aspect,' observed the bench hearing a public interest petition. Appearing for an association of parents, counsel Ashok Aggarwal earlier told the court that the government had gone contrary to the recommendation of the S.L. Bansal Committee, constituted to look into the school fee hike. The Delhi Abhibhavak Mahasangh, aided by NGO Social Jurist, had challenged the DoE notification on the grounds that it violates the orders of the high court and the Supreme Court that the accounts of each school be examined before they are allowed to hike fee. The schools have been demanding up to 50 % hike in tuition fees in order to give teachers a raise and arrears in accordance with the Sixth Pay Commission recommendations. The DoE has created five slabs on the basis of the existing tuition fees in schools, allowing them a maximum fee hike of INR 500.

School in Somerset (UK) gets a broadband Internet connection

Somerset County Council (UK) has announced that the last Local Authority School in Somerset is been hooked up to a broadband Internet connection, in partnership with British Telecom, Cable & Wireless and Research Machines PLC (RM). < ?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

 

The broadband Internet connection marks the end of a programme, which has involved 240 primary and special schools across Somerset. The driver of this scheme has been a government initiative to ensure all schools in England and Wales are connected to broadband at a speed of two megabytes by the end of 2006. Due to a lack of a good communication infrastructure in Somerset, this has been a lengthy exercise, with British Telecom having to upgrade exchanges specifically to connect schools, and with many long and expensive digs being required for installing the fibre cables.

High school students can avail free Microsoft tools

High school students are now able to access and download professional Microsoft Corp. software such as Visual Studio and XNA Game Studio for free, a service that has been offered to higher-education students for the past year through DreamSpark. Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates announced the expansion to high school students on thursday at the Government Leaders Forum

Online admission for junior colleges back once again

'There will be an online admission system across the Mumbai Metropolitan Region for class X students applying for the first year of junior college and the system is completely different from last year,' said Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, State Education Minister on Wednesday. The system was launched for the first time in Mumbai last year. However, few months back, the state education department said there would be no online admissions this year, following complaints over technical snags last year.

'New policy and guidelines for online admissions, which will be more transparent and user-friendly compared to last year have been introduced. But the details on the new system cannot be divulged because of the model code of conduct at present,' added Patil. 'I think this will reduce the tension related with the admissions in junior college and make the system more student-friendly,' said Fr Francis Swamy, principal of Holy Family School, Andheri. 'Even though parents are apprehensive but I think this will lessen the tension associated with junior college admissions. I would not rely on the system unless it was in place for a few years and found to be foolproof,' said Meher Marfatia, a parent of a class X student.

Demand grows for PG at IITs

While the placements at the premier engineering colleges in the country have taken a hit in the wake of the global economic meltdown, the IITs, it seems, have some cause for cheer. The recession has boosted the demand for post-graduate courses in the IITs, which usually play second fiddle to their more sought-after undergraduate counterparts that attract lakhs of aspirants every year. With the lucrative job offers drying up, many IIT graduates have chosen to enrol in the PG courses this year. Buoyed by this newfound interest, the IITs are working on ways to attract more students to higher education and research

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