For years, meritorious students who cracked IIT-JEE filled their preference forms
DPS student to attend Global Young Leaders Conference
Twenty high school scholars of
All these participating students will get a chance to interact with key leaders and newsmakers with powerful influence over politics, finance, culture and diplomacy.
EduNxt launched by Manipal Education
Manipal Education, a pioneering force in Higher Education, announced the launch of its next generation learning system – EduNxt
ICT facility appeal to government by Ghana National Association of Teachers
An appeal has been made by the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) to the government to fasten the process of providing ICT facilities in basic schools. Paul Asamanaba Apanga, President, GNAT explained that government needs to do still more for providing/ introducing ICT to the school curricula. Additionally, the President mentioned that there is still lack of ICT knowledge amongst some teachers, which needs improvement.
ICT was introduced into the school curriculum two years ago with the West African Examination Council designing programmes for it. The teachers have reportedly mentioned that effort is being put to cover all the aspects of curriculum but implementation lags because of inadequate or non-existent facilities. The main idea behind introducing ICT in schools was to increase the ICT awareness of the Ghanaian school going population and to make Ghanaians, in the long run, appreciate the need to use ICT to solve problems.
CII signs pact with IGNOU
The Confederation of Indian Industry and the Indira Gandhi National Open University have signed an MoU to impart skill-based learning. Around 12,900 students in 42 cities will be accommodated under the first phase of this programme. The courses to be offered under this project are travel and tourism; security and fire safety; and spoken English and personality development. CII will be offering domain knowledge for developing curriculum; provide industry experts as faculty; and assist in internship and placement of students. IGNOU will administer admission; facilitate student's enrolment; and generate publicity for courses to ensure maximum participation. V.N. Rajasekharan Pillai, Vice-Chancellor, IGNOU, said India has tremendous infrastructural facilities for conducting skills-based training across the nation. He urged for de-compartmentalisation of education curriculum starting from school, college and university level. CII's implementation partners for phase I-of this project are PremierShield for security and fire services, Kuoni Academy for travel and tourism and Educomp for spoken English and personality development.
State Panels for preventing ragging, checking alcoholism
Accepting advice of its panel, the Supreme Court on Friday ordered the states to form two committees each – one to tackle rampant alcoholism in educational institutions and the other to give psychological counseling to both the raggers and the ragged. A bench of Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, Justice Arijit Pasayat and Justice P. Sathasivam ordered this on the basis of recommendations of a panel, which on the apex court's order earlier probed incidents of ragging. It specifically investigated the incident that led to the death of Aman Kachroo, a Himachal Pradesh medical college student on March 8. The panel, headed by former Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) director R.K. Raghavan, had blamed 'rampant alcoholism' for the spurt in cases of ragging in educational institutions. 'One of main reasons for violence (ragging) on the campus is rampant alcoholism and it is recommended that that de-addiction measures be introduced in educational institutions,' Additional Solicitor General Gopal Subramaniam had told the bench on April 20, quoting from the report. Accepting the panel's findings, the bench on Friday said the committees, to be formed in the states, would also help set up de-addiction facilities in educational institutions. The Raghavan panel had stressed 'dire need' to probe psychological aspect of ragging and had called for appointment of a committee of psychologists and mental health experts for the purpose.
'There is a dire need to examine the psychological aspects of ragging, including its impact on young students and the rationale behind seniors' urge to rag and torment their juniors,' said the panel, in its report on April 20. 'Ragging is similar to child abuse at home or at orphanages. Young men and women who are abused by their seniors under the pretext of ragging believe that the abusers are part of their extended family and automatically, in their minds, it becomes an internal family affair, and hence very rarely do students ever speak out against it,' said the panel. In subsequent hearing on April 23, the bench had broadly expressed its agreement with both the findings of the panel.
Prometric to computerize CAT for IIMs
Prometric, the world's leading provider of technology-enabled testing and assessment services announced that it has been awarded an exclusive, US $ 40 million dollar contract by the Indian Institutes of Management (IIM) to computerize the prestigious Common Admissions Test (CAT). To efficiently deliver the first ever computerized version of the exam to over 250,000 Indian students this fall, Prometric will accelerate plans to further build out its people, services and technology infrastructure in India. In assuming responsibility for all aspects of the CAT program, including item authoring, test development, test administration and scoring and reporting services, Prometric will add resources, including dedicated test development and support staff, in India.
Complementing the 185 employees, test center network and other assets Prometric already operates in India, these additional new resources will provide a more powerful and rigorous means for the CAT, and any other test publishers looking at expansion in India, to leverage for growth. The CAT is the premiere admissions test used in the selection process for admission to the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), a network of India's most prestigious business schools based in Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Calcutta, Indore, Kozhikode, Lucknow and Shillong. Of the 250,000 students that take the exam each year, ultimately just over 1,500 are admitted to one of the IIMs. It is therefore one of the most competitive and high profile admission exam administrations in the world, requiring tight execution and secure exam delivery. For the first time in history, instead of testing only one day a year, candidates will be able to test during a 10-day testing window across 23 Indian cities where secure computer-based testing centers specially prepared for the CAT exam are strategically positioned throughout the country. The longer window and wider availability will provide candidates greater flexibility when choosing a testing date, time or location as well as near-ubiquitous access to testing locations. In addition, computerization of the CAT will result in faster score processing, enabling the IIMs and more than a hundred other Indian business schools that rely on the results to more quickly make their admissions decisions.
Call for linking theory and practice by Stakeholders
Stakeholders at a day's forum on development of appropriate skills for the country's educational institutions have called for a strong link between theory and practical training in order to well-prepare students to meet the needs of the job market. They called for rationalization of curricula with emphasis on job attachment and acquisition of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) skills to enable students to become competitive and lead the country's development agenda. The symposium was organized by the Ghana Employers' Association (GEA), to assess the skills gap in the labour market and recommend measures to bridge that gap by training of students in skills that were relevant to the labour market needs and training institutions.
Currently, programmes offered in Ghanaian training institutions were skewed towards the humanities as a result of which even the polytechnics, which were more technical inclined, were currently admitting more people for business related courses instead of science and technical subjects. The stakeholders said measures, including review of curriculum and content rationalization of programmes that did not meet the demands of employers, relevance of programmes, the dexterity of graduates, relevant skills and competencies and exposure to global and international competition were necessary to ensure that graduates were well positioned to take advantage of the job market. Festus Addo-Yobo, Rector, Accra Polytechnic, called for the promotion of business model for training institutions to address issues such as teachers having renewable contracts that were subject to periodic evaluations, give close monitoring to graduates, create strong links with enterprises through governance; delivery of training services, in-service training and financial sustainability. Addo-Yobo said that this resulted in the introduction of the competence based teaching approach in the polytechnics where students progress after they demonstrate their understanding of what they have been taught. Alexander Frimpong, Acting Executive Director of GEA, said, 'employers had been challenged with funding for training of employees against the back-drop of the global economic crises and that Ghana shall experience a significant boost if the quality of education and training in institutions are improved.'
Colleges funded by State demand their DU
The Delhi government is allegedly considering de-linking 12 of its colleges from Delhi University. The government is reportedly unhappy with huge number of outstation students getting admission in these colleges. 'The government is considering affiliating the 12 colleges it fully funds to the state-run Guru Govind Singh Indraprastha University,' said Rajib Ray, DU Executive Council member. 'They want to ensure that 85 % of the seats in these colleges are reserved for Delhi students.' Ray referred to a meeting called on Wednesday by Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit to discuss the admission, land allotment and management issues of the Indira Gandhi Institute of Physical Education and Sports Science, which is 100 % funded by the state government.
'The Delhi government has no right to decide the admission or management policy of any colleges under Delhi University,' said Ray. 'These are done by the academic and executive councils.' Teachers of these 12 colleges have alleged that the government is interfering with the admission policies of the colleges, although it has no prerogative to do so. College principals expressed concern over the alleged move. 'None of these colleges can be shifted from Delhi University because they get their identity from the university,' said Savitri Singh, principal, Acharya Narendra Dev College. 'It is the DU degree that is of value to students.' The chief minister said no decision has been taken. 'Such a move would require a Cabinet decision and no such decision has been taken yet,' said Dikshit. 'It is imperative that Delhi students get to study in Delhi government-funded colleges. But for that we can create more colleges under Ambedkar University,' Dikshit added, referring to the newly formed state university for humanities and social science. Teachers, however, pressed the panic button after alleged inquiries from government officials.
Back to home: Lack of job opportunties for students in US, Uk
Last November, Abhimanyu Gupta, an MBA student in New York University's Stern School of Business, was on the top of the world when he How to stay afloat in your job landed a job offer from Bank of America's investment banking division. This February he felt right at the bottom of the abyss as the bank withdrew the offer and Gupta's world cratered just like the global markets. Now, the 27-year-old chartered accountant, who left his home Mumbai in 2007 to become an investment banker in the world's financial capital, plans to return home if he doesn't get an offer by June when his course ends. With five months of recruitment time gone, Gupta concedes that his chances of finding similar job in the US, which is battling the worst downturn in decades, are bleak. His chances are as bleak as hundreds of other Indian and foreign national students across top universities in the US, UK and other western economies, who now plan to go back home. The Harvards, Whartons, NYU Sterns, Kelloggs, MIT Sloans, Michigans and Dukes
