An announcement was made by the Manipal University regarding admissions to their International Centre for Applied Sciences (ICAS) Twinning Program, a collaborative arrangement with foreign universities. For students the course provides a great platform, to pursue engineering programs overseas, at a fraction of the cost. The last date for admissions is 30th July 2009; spot admissions are open on 18th & 19th July'09 in Delhi at Manipal Universal Learning Pvt Ltd, No. 256, Okhla Industrial Estate Phase 3, Opposite Post office, New Delhi
New Learning tool for parents
The market-leading Learning Platform provider, UniServity, announced the imminent release of an exciting new product for Parents which will transform how they access, engage and support their child's learning process. A dynamic online 'window' into student's attendance, attainment, behaviour and progression at school provides parents and carers with access to actively engage with their child's learning and create a dialogue with teachers, other parents and the whole school community. UniServity's Parental Engagement and Reporting Product will empower parents by dynamically engaging them in their child's progression at school, whilst creating new opportunities to communicate with teachers, other parents and the whole school learning community beyond the traditional constraints of the school day. A personalised and familiar 'social networking' style experience will provide parents with safe, anytime anyplace access to valuable information about their child including attendance, attainment, behaviour and progression data. Parents will benefit from being able to take a more proactive role in supporting their child's learning, and will have the ability to easily access and comment on examples of their child's school work and 'ePortfolio' learning journal.
Schools will benefit from a comprehensive suite of fully customisable tools and features to support teaching, streamlined reporting and administration, with the ability to create an online dialogue with parents and other key stakeholders. The Parent Product is fully integrated with the UniServity cLc (connected Learning communities) Learning Platform to further provide schools with a comprehensive 21st Century Teaching and Learning toolkit. Wirral Local Authority (LA) has become the first Local Authority to announce they will be providing the Parent Product for their schools. The Parent Product will be available from October 2009, with a premium version scheduled for launch at the BETT Show in London (UniServity Stand E125) in January 2010.
Free digital libraries at Kerala schools
In Kerala, the government is to set up 'Free Digital Libraries' in all schools in Kerala, Education Minister M.A. Baby told on Monday. Under the scheme, 4,071 schools will be provided hardware equipment including 7,300 computers, 3,740 laptops, 6,510 UPS units, 1,291 printers, 785 scanners, 1,160 multimedia projectors and 430 LCD Televisions (32″) before March 31.
The minister said the above during the state-level inauguration of hardware distribution to 4,071 schools under 'ICT in School Scheme.' K. Anvar Sadath, executive director of IT@School Project, mentioned that the 'Free Digital Libraries' will be supported with materials on a regular basis. IT@School Project, through its various initiatives, has enabled the educational system to make a paradigm shift to ICT enabled education from the conventional IT education.
Students advised not to seal seats in haste during online admissions
While online admissions will do away with long queues and unnecessary paperwork, it comes with a whole new set of problems, one that has students on edge. The key issue yet to be addressed is whether a student hoping to get a seat in junior college will be allowed 'betterment', the process where a child who has made it to the first merit list of a college that's not his first choice, is allowed to reserve a seat in that institute, while still being considered for the second and third merit lists in other places. While the state says that every Std X pass-out will be given one chance for bettering his or her choice of college, the Maharashtra Knowledge Corporation Limited (MKCL), the company providing technical support to the state in the online admission process, is refuting this claim.
Betterment of choice is nothing but moving up the list of college preferences submitted by each student as and when a vacancy erupts. This is the age-old system we are leaving behind: In the offline system let's assume you applied to five science colleges A, B, C, D and E and got into college D on the basis of your scores in the first merit list. You would naturally book a seat in college D by paying the fees, but wait for the entry cut-off scores to drop in the other colleges of your preference, A, B etc. As and when cut-offs drop, you would cancel your admission in college D and move to a better college of your choice, say college C or B, and again wait to see if you can get a spot in college A if entry scores for that institute falls. But that would not be possible online. A top official in MKCL said that the admission season would go on endlessly if every student was given a chance for betterment. According to him, once a student is allotted a college and pays up the fees, the candidate's admission would be sealed. Experts, however, question the efficacy of the betterment formula online. In the offline system, students apply to more than one college and hence after the first merit list, there are several students whose names come up in more than one college. When they pay the fees in the institute of their choice, a vacancy arises in the other college, which also shortlisted them.
Investment to be made in Education by Mobile Telecommunications Network
Mobile Telecommunications Network (MTN) is to invest 70,000 dollars in an education project over the next three years to improve on literacy and numeracy among pupils in some basic schools in the Northern Region. Over the three-year period 25 schools would be touched by the Project that is to be initially piloted in five schools in the Tamale Metropolis and would impact on over 10,000 pupils. Mawuena Dumor, Executive Director MTN Ghana Foundation, said this when she launched the 'Academy for education development project' in Tamale on Thursday. The Project is collaboration among MTN, the Academy for Educational Development (AED) and the Centre for Education Development and Management (CEDEM), an NGO.
Stephen Yaw Manu, Executive Director of AED-Ghana, told that the Project would support the Ghana Education Service (GES) and the Ministry of Education to implement the Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education (FCUBE) to ensure that all school aged children, especially the girls, are in school to at least complete their basic education. Stephen Sumani Nayina, Northern Regional Minister, urged MTN to work closely with the GES and NGOs in the education sector to harmonise their efforts to achieve the targets of the MTN Project. He appealed to MTN and other telecommunications networks to follow the rules governing the communication sector as well as the Town and Country Planning and Environmental Protection Agency's guidelines and desist from erecting their communication mask in residential areas.
Launch of graduate internships in East of England
In order to fund 770 graduate internships with businesses in the East of England, a scheme of UK
IT competitiveness retention in Indian Budget
National trade body Nasscom says the government has made good by fulfilling most of its pre-budget demands, but industry watchers and players are divided on whether the new budget is adequate. India's finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, unveiled the country's budget in Parliament on Monday, which aims to revive economic growth back to 9%, from 6.7 % between 2008 and 2009. To achieve this target, Mukherjee focused on lower taxes, higher personal income-tax exemption limits and the abolition of some taxes. These measures are expected to increase disposable incomes, thereby, spurring higher consumption. Nasscom has welcomed the budget.
The finance minister noted that the first set of unique identity numbers will be rolled out in 12 to 18 months. These numbers will be issued by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), headed by Nandan Nilekani, co-founder of Infosys. The finance minister has proposed a provision of INR 1.2 billion (US$25 million) for this project. The finance minister also increased the allocation for the 'Mission in Education through ICT' scheme to INR 9 billion (US$188 million). He also took several steps for skills enhancement, increasing provisions for the setting up and upgrading of polytechnics under the Skill Development Mission to INR 4.95 billion (US$103 million). The government also allocated INR 21.13 billion (US$439.7 million) for Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and National Institutes of Technology, and proposed more funds for higher education. Iyengar, however, had wanted the budget to include efforts to revamp primary education.
Digitalisation of Tunisian Education
Young Tunisian Internet users are intensively surfing the web these days on the lookout for useful information relative to their university orientation. Google's 'insights for search' shows that 7 out of 10 of the main key words for the last 30 days in Tunisia, are related to the Baccalaureate exams specifically and education in general. The Tunisian education website 'Edunet' is the third most consulted website nationwide. The website which is set up by the ministry of education and vocational training, allows holders of the Baccalaureate exam to accomplish the various formalities relative to their registration in higher education institutions for the coming academic year.
'Edunet' also enables users to download didactic material produced by teachers, as well as setting up links with other digital contents relative to education and ICT. However more importantly, the website also contains the orientation guide set up by the ministry of higher education which includes some 750 branches for the first round of university orientation, destined to candidates who succeeded during the first session of the Baccalaureate examination. From July 11 to 14, candidates will have to enter -by order of priority- the branches they will have chosen, among those to which they are eligible. Results are due to be announced on July 19 on the same website as, well as by SMS. Second round candidates will then be able to apply from July 19 to 22. Results for the second orientation round will then be announced on July 27. In a second stage, future students will then be able to register online, through the ministry of higher education website, 'inscription.tn'.
Pearson into language publishing market
Confined mostly to English language books, Pearson Education, a leading educational publishing firm, is all set to explore the local language Indian educational publishing market. In the process of doing the same Pearson Education has now added different state boards to its list. A representative from Pearson mentioned that Pearson is planning to publish material in local languages and that they had already started publishing sections on Higher Education and trade business in Hindi and other local languages. It was added that the Indian educational publishing market is highly fragmented and has a size of INR 50 billion, which is very high when compared to vocational and professional education. The ambit of such publications includes textbooks and supplementary books, mainly for the K-12 and higher education segments.
INR 862.30crore to be spent on school education scheme, announces Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu Government announced a series of measures proposed to be implemented at a cost of INR 862.30 crore on school education front during 2009-10. Replying to demands of school education in the assembly, minister for School Education, Thangam Thennarasu, said, 'The cost will incur important activities such as civil works, grants, enrolling out-of-school children, inclusive education for the disabled, in-service training, innovative activities and community training,' He said 66,896 out-of-school children would be enrolled and mainstreamed through various interventions such as residential and non-residential bridge courses, summer camps and special residential bridge courses. He also informed that around 1.18 lakh disabled children would be covered under inclusive education for disabled scheme.
The minister said teachers grant of INR 500 would be given to 2,09,918 teachers working in primary and upper primary schools. He also said around two lakh teachers would be covered under in-service training. As many as 831 primary schools would be converted into middle schools. The state government would be spending INR 46 crore for the purchase of desks and benches for sixth, seventh and eighth standard students. Giving details about the improvement in educational indicators, he said that at primary level, the droupout rate had been reduced from 1.91 % in 2005-2006 to 1.23 % in 2007-08 and at the upper primary level it decreased from 4.08 % in 2005-06 to 1.90 % in 2007-08. He said that the teachers recruitment board was taking action to recruit 5,773 secondary grade teachers for elementary education department. On EDUSAT programme, the minister said that it had been proposed to give 30 interactive EDUSAT programmes for 600 teachers in 2009-10.
