Besides owning and managing some of the renowned schools in the UAE and Lebanon, Academia Management Solutions International (AMSI) has taken over the highly-reputed 'The Lebanese School' in Qatar with a commitment to enrich the curriculum of the school with the latest ICT-integrated system and to elevate the institution from a good school to a world-class school within a short span of 24 months. Established in 1975, The Lebanese School is a reputed school in Qatar with over 1,600 students studying in both English and French mediums. Being a leader in Information & Communication Technology (ICT)-integrated education for the past 10 years, AMSI organized an event at the school hall with the presence of the LSQ board of trustees, to unveil the new academic package. Over 500 parents attended a 25 minute presentation on the new school website
Educomp leaps by 73% in consolidated net profit
Backed by strong performance of its education solutions software Smart Class which is targeted at schools, Educomp Ltd has registered 73% jump in consolidated net profit to INR 54.5 crore for quarter ended March over last year. Its total revenues grew more than 50% to close the quarter at INR 184.3 crore. The education solutions provider attributed the performance to its two major products, Smart Class and instructional & computing technologies (ICT in education). Revenues as well as profits from Smart Class more than doubled for the quarter as it expanded its reach to 1.98 million students across more than 1,700 schools in the country. Similarly, the ICT business of Educomp, which works in partnership with 13 state governments, has now reached more than 12,000 schools covering 6.5 million students under the program.
Educomp which recently forayed into budget schools, saw net profit and revenues increase by over 80%. While the net profit grew to INR 128.2 crore for the full year 2008-09, it was at close to INR 70 crore in the previous year. Its total revenues increased to INR 507 crore this year from INR 274.5 crore last year.
Supreme Court orders fire safety measures in Indian schools
In a significant ruling, the Supreme Court on Monday ordered installation of fire-extinguishing equipment and adoption of other safety measures in all government and private schools across the country within six months to avoid recurrence of incidents like the July 2004 school fire in Tamil Nadu that killed 93 children. A bench of Justices Daveer Bhandari and Lokeshwar Singh Panta ordered various safety measures against fire and stps to meet other security concerns of the schoolchildren on a public interest lawsuit, demanding enforcement of children's fundamental right to education in a safe and secure environment. The petition had been filed in 2004 in the wake of one of the worst tragedies involving schoolchildren in Kumbakonam town of Tamil Nadu's Thanjavur district, where 93 students from lower kindergarten to standard five were trapped and perished in a fire that engulfed Sri Krishna Aided Higher Secondary School. The fire in the girls' elementary school had originated in the kitchen and spread rapidly setting ablaze the thatched roofs of the school and engulfing the classrooms.
Ordering installation of various safety measures in all schools across the country, the apex court asked education secretaries of all states to file their compliance report of its order within one month after installing the safety measures. The apex court also ordered all government and private schools to strictly comply with various safety measures prescribed by the National Building Code of India in 2005 and asked the governments of various state and union territories not to recognize the schools not complying with safety measures. 'Before granting recognition or affiliation, the concerned state governments and union territories are directed to ensure that the buildings are safe and secured from every angle and they are constructed according to the safety norms incorporated in the National Building Code of India,' said the bench. 'All existing government and private schools shall install fire extinguishing equipments within a period of six months,' said the bench, also ordering 'necessary training to the staff and other school officials in using the fire extinguishing equipment.' It ordered that 'the school buildings be kept free from inflammable and toxic material. If storage is inevitable, they should be stored safely.' Ordering 'periodic evaluation of structural aspect of the school”, the bench also asked “concerned engineers and officials to strictly follow the National Building Code and issue safety certificates only after proper inspection.' 'Dereliction in duty must attract immediate disciplinary action against the concerned officials,' it warned.
Parliament launches internship programme similar to US Senate
A first of its kind internship programme has been launched by the Parliament on the lines of the US Senate internship programme to provide an opportunity to youth (21-28) to study the workings of the parliamentary system and provide an insight into the functional dynamics of the Indian Parliament. The internship programme also aims to impart requisite skills and knowledge to enable the interns to develop a proper perspective about the role of the Legislature, which in turn, would help them while working in their own chosen fields in the future. Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee has taken the initiative. The Lok Sabha launched the programme in February.
The interns are to prepare a project report on a selected topic of parliamentary relevance in the nature of an impact study of important parliamentary initiatives and endeavours. The Bureau of Parliamentary Studies and Training of the Lok Sabha Secretariat are implementing the programme. Ajit Phadnis, a PGP – '07 student of Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIM-B), is one among the five candidates across the country that have been chosen to do the internship programme.
MeritTrac unveils Pariksha
MeritTrac, India's largest Testing company unveiled its next-generation service offering, 'Pariksha' for delivering high-stakes, large-scale exams across the country in a secure environment. Continuing on its journey of innovation after winning the NASSCOM Innovation Award in 2008, MeritTrac has unveiled Pariksha as a service offering built on an innovative technology platform that comprehensively covers the entire spectrum of examination delivery processes, supported by a huge network of 50,000 testing terminals in 185 cities across India. This offering is backed by stringent ISO 9001:2008 quality standards that MeritTrac has recently got certified. Addressing the media Madan Padaki, Co-Founder and CEO, MeritTrac, said, 'Pariksha will usher in a new era for high-stakes, large-scale examination delivery
CORE Projects partners with Oxford for Teacher Training
CORE Projects and Technologies Limited, India's largest Global Education Company, announced a path-breaking collaboration with the University of Oxford, UK for teacher capacity building and enablement in India. The new initiative is in line with the strategic focus of Core Projects to offer holistic and integrated Global Education Solutions in the Indian Education space through a single window that includes the brick and mortar components, Information & Communication Technologies (ICT) and content. The Director of the Oxford component of this project, Dr. David Johnson, who was in India to personally jump start the relationship has investigated effects of a professional development program on the leadership capabilities of head teachers and conducted a large baseline assessment of the conditions of teaching and learning and the literacy attainments of children in three states in Nigeria for the World Bank. Johnson will lead the proposed India program on behalf of University of Oxford. The project is initially slated for a duration of 3 years during which the Oxford team of educationists headed by Johnson will closely work with CORE Projects and various stakeholders of the Indian Education space to create India specific methods of assessing teacher performance, identify gaps in practice which will result in course modules intended to close such gaps.
Johnson has also carried out 2 projects in Bhutan on behalf of UNESCO, the first being a national project on science policy and the teaching of science in primary and secondary schools and the second into the effects of a professional development program on the leadership capabilities of head teachers. Dr. Johnson also conducted a baseline analysis of 100 schools and 5000 students on the conditions of teaching and learning and the literacy and mathematics attainments of children in 3 states in Nigeria on behalf of the World Bank, in advance of an extension of credit to the Nigerian educational sector. It is expected that CORE will identify States within India with the help of MHRD where the teacher capacity effort is a major challenge and start with a pre-assessment process that sets the performance baseline. Course modules designed to bring the teachers who score below the baseline up to a minimum standard will then be put into place. Reports will be shared with MHRD and their recommendations incorporated into the design of subsequent lesson modules through a process of continual iteration. Measurement of outcomes is important and Professor Johnson will be putting in place tools that measure teacher enablement before and after program participation.
ICT conference by Chennai College and NASSCOM
Chennai's Loyola College in association with NASSCOM, the centre for Internet and society will be organizing a three-day National Conference on Information and Communication Technology's (ICT) for the Differently abled/ under privileged in Education, Employment and Entrepreneurship (NCITEEE). Beginning from December 1, 2009 the conference starts with the distribution of the welcome kit and inaugural function from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. while the rest of the program continues till five in the evening. The main aim of this conference is to devise a successful formula through which the lesser privileged people of our society can be provided the opportunity to use the ICT to grow at par with the modernized world.
The program, a three-day event, will be ending on the December 3, 2009, which happens to be the E-accessibility Day. Individuals who have contributed their tireless efforts in making ICT accessible to all will also be recognized in the function. Some of the main aims and themes of this conference would be the institutional and national responses to technological change, the intersections of political economy and educational technology, the architecture of learning, pedagogy in the evolving tech environment, informal and formal adult education, multi-grade education, instructional design and delivery; evaluation and assessment, strategies and tools for teaching and learning, simulations and gaming, effects on training institutions and industry, impacts on educational institutions: effects on faculty, staff, administration, and students; curriculum and program development intellectual property, Building communities of teachers/ educators, e-governance and leadership and so on.
ICT lesson from abroad for Consortium for School Networking
As part of the organization’s latest effort to learn from colleagues abroad, a delegation of U.S. education technology leaders from the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) visited Scotland and the Netherlands last week to learn more about the world’s first national intranet for education, international approaches to online safety, and more.
Last year, a CoSN delegation toured Scandinavia in search of answers for how students in that region of the world were able to score so high on a recent international test of math and science skills. This year, the delegation hoped to learn more about international practices for integrating ICT into instruction, as well as how data-driven decision making influences initiatives and strategies in Scotland and the Netherlands.
The six-day visit, which began November 8th, marked CoSN’s fourth international delegation. While abroad, the delegation held high-level meetings with both public and private-sector officials. Specifically, the delegation hoped to learn how strategic investments in ICT by Scotland and the Netherlands are preparing their students for higher achievement and success in a global economy; explore innovative uses of technology, including Web 2.0 collaborative tools, national learning platforms, and other cutting-edge applications; and discover common challenges in using ICT to transform learning.
In Scotland, the delegation met with senior staff at Learning and Teaching Scotland (LTS), the lead government-funded organization for the development of Scottish ICT initiatives, and heard about the Glow Network, the world’s first national intranet for education.
Iken.in Empowers e-learning Experience
Mexus Education, an educational innovation enterprise, through its flagship social media enhanced e-learning website 'Iken.in', announced the launch of online learning subscriptions packages for Class VI to IX of study material designed for CBSE, ICSE and State Board students, mapped according to the NCERT curriculum. The packages include educational videos, slides shows, movies, animations, test papers and questions, performance assessment, feedback and a whole host of content which complements course curriculum and simplifies the learning process. Iken.in is a student centric education portal which integrates e-learning and social media features, in order to facilitate easy learning methods, with its unique blend of 'edutainment' – education and entertainment. Students can share and view presentations and videos, take tests, revise their curriculum, connect with peers and play educational interactive games on the site.
Unique features of Iken.in include integration of e-learning and social media features to create a unique online learning experience; it complements CBSE, ICSE, and State Board prescribed course material with interactive, multimedia enhanced learning content; it offers more than 10000 unique courseware elements which include educational videos, animation films, slideshows, mind maps, assessment tests, FAQs, etc. available on the site; it has 25,000+ users already registered on 'Iken.in'; it includes virtual knowledge currency 'Ken' which facilitates easy access to educational material on 'Iken.in'; and it has more than 6000 unique educational videos, 3000 presentations, 2000 mind maps, 4000 assessment tests and 5000 unique customized questions. 'Iken.in' also offers 'pay-per-content' option, where instead of buying an entire subscription package users can pay for access to only select study material elements, like a video or presentation as per the need. This makes 'Iken.in' extremely competitive compared to other e-learning options available to students in the market. 'Ken' the on-site virtual knowledge currency, can be earned by uploading relevant educational content on the website or can also be bought through an online payment.
America brought together 17 Universities for Sri Lankan Education
17 US universities were brought together by Amazing America 2009, to create an event that educated and informed the Sri Lankan students, parents and other institutes about the American education system, entrance opportunities, visas, scholarship programmes, student life and much more. This is a yearly event which was conducted for the second successful time in Sri Lanka. The event was held in Colombo at Cinnamon Lake on November 6 and 7 and at Queens Hotel in Kandy on November 9. In Colombo, the opening Ceremony was graced by Her Excellency, the US Ambassador to Sri Lanka. Patricia Butenis and Secretary to the President, Lalith Weeratunga. The opening ceremony in Kandy was graced by Minister Keheliya Rambukwella. The event was sponsored by American College of Higher Education, Sri Lanka. The mandate of American Alumni Association is the furtherance of educational opportunities between Sri Lanka and the US, with the primary purpose of promoting fellowship, achievements, appreciation of American culture and values and ultimately to build a mutual understanding between the people of the two countries.
