Probe ordered for poor exmination reults in Madhya Pradesh

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May 11, 2009

Shocked by the declining pass percentage in Madhya Pradesh's high school examinations, state Education Minister Archana Chitnis has ordered a high-level probe to find out the reasons for the poor results, said official sources. After reaching a record high of 57.88 pass percentage last year, only 35.33 % of regular students passed the 2009 examination, conducted by the Madhya Pradesh Board of Secondary Education (MPBSE).

The performance by private students was even more dismal, with only 8.9 % of them passing, compared to 25.07 % last year. The probe committee has been asked to submit its report within a fortnight. Soon after the declaration of results Saturday, Chitnis chaired a departmental meeting to find out the reasons for the poor show and even directed officials to initiate a process to exclude teachers engaged in board classes from election duty, an official present at the meeting told sources on condition of anonymity. 'The minister held election duty of teachers in both assembly (in 2008) and the current parliamentary elections responsible for the poor results. She said for the next year books had been made available in all government schools before the commencement of the session from April 1, and thus the results are expected to improve,' said the official. Chitnis is also said to have apprised Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan of her decision. MPBSE secretary in charge Snehlata Srivastava straight away blamed the prolonged election process and insufficient training for teachers in accordance with the changed syllabi for the decline in the pass percentage. However, a large number of school principals claimed the fall in pass percentage was due to the board's decision to permit students having less than 65 percent attendance to appear in exams.

Semester system in DU favoured by VC

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May 11, 2009

Delhi University (DU) Vice-Chancellor Deepak Pental is willing to introduce the semester system at the under-graduate level within the next three years. This was announced by Professor Pental at the Open Day session organized on the South Campus on Thursday. A section of the teaching society does not favour the idea to introduce the semester system at the varsity. 'Our University is equipped with equipments to hold practical. We will also add between 40 and 80 computers to every college that would lead to skill development, said Professor Pental.

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'We may be moving to a semester system within three years in our colleges. So students will have exams twice a year,' added Professor Pental. During the Open House session, Pental urged the students to follow the dictates of heart while deciding on what they wanted to pursue further. South Campus Director Dinesh Singh also exhorted the students to listen to their 'inner voice.' Dean of Students' Welfare S.K. Vij also empowered the notion by pointed out that there was no difference of thought that the students should be given priority to the course they want to study. A personal counselling session with faculty members in Humanities, Science and Commerce was also organized for the students.

26,000 forms sold on first day of admission at DU

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May 11, 2009

'In total 26,052 forms were sold at the 16 centres on the first day,' told deputy dean of student's welfare Seema Parihar. Parihar also said that while a large number of forms were sold, the overall rush was less than that of last year. The streets of the varsity's campuses in the north and the south of the city appeared flooded with aspirants and parents making their way to the various centres and colleges. The sale and receipt of forms for admission into 47 courses and 63 colleges will be open till June 15 between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m.

The common pre-admission forms are available at only these 16 centres for INR 50 each. The first cut off list will be announced on June 25. Delhi University is offering 49,000 seats for the coming academic session. Along with the common pre-admission form, an information bulletin is being distributed listing out not only the courses available in different colleges but also last year's cut-off marks for each subject in each college and maps providing locations of all the colleges. 'The rush and the energy here is so exciting. Right from the Vishwavidyalaya metro station till the colleges the queues and bustle is endless. At every step you are approached by people and volunteers from different academies, colleges, student unions and organisations,' said Sana Khan standing in a queue at the Arts Faculty in North Campus. Registration for physically challenged students is open between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m, at the office of the Dean Students Welfare in North Campus and forms are available for them free of cost. Forms for the English honours CATE (Common aptitude test for English conducted for 12 colleges) are available only at the Arts Faculty centre, North Campus, which is also one of four centres where candidates from Scheduled castes and Schedule Tribes can register for free.

IT firms to help link schools to Internet

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May 11, 2009

On Wednesday, an appeal was made by the Department of Education (DepEd) to private telecommunication companies to assist the drive to connect all public high schools to the Internet. Jesli Lapus, Education Secretary, mentioned that the government is grateful to the private sector's contribution to the education sector in recent years through its Adopt-A-School program and projects such as the Brigada Eskwela and the GILAS (Gearing up Internet Literacy and Access for Students).

At present, 4,017 public high schools are already connected to the Internet, a little over a half or 2,020 of it through the initiative of the private sector mostly through the GILAS project. He added that programme offers only a one-year free Internet connection after which the DepEd has to shoulder the cost. Lapus put the amount at P300 million annually.

Apprehension about DU CATE amongst students

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May 11, 2009

Ahead of admissions to the various courses at Delhi University (DU), students and their parents appeared most anxious about the Common Aptitude Test for English (CATE) at the Open Day interaction held in Delhi on Monday. Aspiring students and parents participated at the University event held at the < ?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />S.G.T.B. Khalsa College here on Monday. It was one of nine 'Open Day' events planned over the coming week that will end June 3. The maximum inquiries among students were regarding the CATE that will be held for the first time this year. Twelve colleges namely – Delhi College of Arts and Commerce (DCAC), Hindu College, IP College for Women, Kamla Nehru College, Maharaja Agrasen College, Ram Lal Anand College (evening), Satyawati College (evening), Shivaji College, Shyam Lal College, Swami Shraddanand College, Zakir Hussain College (morning and evening) – will rely on how students perform in the CATE during admission.

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Several students seemed confused about the procedure. 'Students have numerous queries, the most frequent ones are regarding CATE. They want to know how to apply for the course and what would be asked in the entrance examination,' Smriti Anand, a varsity student counselor incharge of the Open Day interactions, told sources. Students applying for the English Honours course in these colleges will have to buy a separate form from the English Department of the Arts Faculty Building, North Campus, and the regular admission form will not suffice. Students were apprehensive about what the test would be like. 'I don't know what they will ask in the entrance examination,' told Ravneet Kaur, an English Honours aspirant. According to Vij, the test will have a simple format – with three types of questions, namely unseen passages, essay writing and objective type questions. Ranjeet Narang, whose daughter wanted to apply for English, was confused and hassled with the multiple application procedures.

iSpot: First Apple Solution Expert in Qatar

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May 8, 2009

An Apple Solution Expert (ASE) is a company that has been picked by Apple for being experts in their field. As an ASE in the Apple Education Program, iSpot and its staff are qualified and experienced in specialist areas. Irrespective of whether it is a school, university, Institute, student or teacher; Apple Solution Experts provides you with all the support and assistance needed to get the most out of a Mac and its solutions. Apple screens its partners before being accepted as Apple Solution Experts. This is the assurance which customers need to feel they are in good hands dealing with those who know what they are doing and are competent enough.

iSpot is empowered to provide a wide range of expertise in the design and implementation of education solutions. As an ASEe, iSpot is well versed in Apple products and services, and can identify opportunities for improving an institutes or its stockholders (Students, Teachers, Administrators) needs through latest Apple technology solutions, which may never have been considered. Launching its business to the public of Qatar one-year back, iSpot has four main areas of engagement. The corporate division works closely with the private & public sector enabling the businesses with cutting edge Apple technology, and now it has extended their commitment in delivering the best services for the education sector while concentrating in giving the best learning solutions to the government and private educational institutes ranging from junior schools to universities. The services division of iSpot is responsible for after sales service on all products sold from iSpot or even for Apple products bought from any other vendor. The retail division of iSpot manages its showroom in city center, and is presently preparing to launch two more showrooms in Qatar. The newest line of business for iSpot is its distribution engagement, where iSpot is the exclusive partner in Qatar for many leading technology brands that compliment with Apple products.

NIIT, Intel and MP join hands on ‘Gyanodya’

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May 8, 2009

NIIT, Intel, the Madhya Pradesh (MP) State Electronics Development Corporation, and the MP government have joined hands on ‘Gyanodya’, an Information Communication Technology (ICT) enabled education project in the government schools. < ?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

The pilot project is being rolled out in the Government Excellence Higher Secondary School, Budni. Consistent with the vision of emerging as one of the India’s most progressive states, the Madhya Pradesh government has decided to enable its youth with the best of technology and education. The government hopes to extend this initiative to the students across all the socio-economic strata, including the rural and inaccessible corners of the state. Madhya Pradesh State Electronics Development Corporation (MPSEDC) will oversee the successful implementation of the project. The NIIT will deploy ‘eGuru’, its most popular and widely accepted virtual computer based teaching solution, besides providing faculty, teacher training and courseware. Intel will provide necessary infrastructure in schools. The total cost of this pilot project is Rs 40 crore for a year.

Nepad launches e-School in Uganda

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May 8, 2009

New Partnership for African Development's (Nepad) electronic school initiative is officially launched at Kyambogo College School near Kampala, Uganda. < ?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

The objective of Nepad's e-Schools initiative is to equip all African schools with ICT tools, to ensure that African youth graduate with the skills necessary to fully participate in the information society and knowledge economy. The three schools that are already benefiting from the Nepad's Advanced Micro Devices are Kyambogo College School, St Andrew Kaggwa Senior Secondary School in Luwero and Bukuya Secondary School in Mityana. The initiative is a positive step towards empowering Ugandans with the benefits available from access to the digital world.

12 Delhi schools notified for arbitrary fee hike

K-12

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May 8, 2009

The Delhi government on Wednesday issued show cause notices to 12 unaided public schools for taking arbitrary decisions on the issue of fee hike, said a statement issued by the state government. 'Keeping in view reported instances of arbitrary decisions by certain schools, the Directorate of Education today (Wednesday) issued show cause notices to 12 such schools,' said an official statement. Delhi government's Education Minister Arvinder Singh Lovely also directed all the deputy directors of education department to remain available in their respective offices to redress grievances of parents of this issue. The schools have been demanding up to 50 % tuition fee hike in order to implement the Sixth Pay Commission recommendations on teachers' salaries and arrears. In January, the Delhi government created five slabs on the basis of the existing tuition fee in schools, allowing them a maximum fee hike of INR 500. However, since then parents have been protesting against the hike. Lovely issued the direction while chairing a meeting of all the deputy directors. The parents would be able to meet them between 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. on all working days.

The government has also requested parents to come forward to submit their complaints to the respective deputy directors, so that necessary action could be taken immediately without any delay. The education minister also made it clear that no school would be allowed to hike fee without due approval by the general body of its parent teacher association in duly convened meeting. 'It has also been made clear that the schools would not be able to delete name of any student and deny issue of report card on the basis of alleged non submission of enhanced fee,' said the official statement.

HCL and CNRI join together to empower rural youth

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May 8, 2009

HCL Career Development Centre (CDC) has announced an alliance with Confederation of NGOs of Rural India (CNRI) for pan India roll of Centre for Development of Employable Skills (CDES). The Centre for Development of Employable Skills (CDES) has been formed to impart job oriented skill training and induce self-employment skills amongst youth in rural India. The training program would cover Basic Communication Skills, English Language Learning, Sales Orientation, Basics of Computer Hardware and Networking, Business Applications and Basic Accounting Process.

CNRI's reach and understanding of the rural needs coupled with HCL's extensive IT experience & expertise will ensure that CDES offers quality IT Infrastructure, useful training software with focused content, training kits and courseware for specially designed programs. CDES has been primarily designed to address skill development needs of the rural youth and would expand into the Tier III, IV cities covering remote districts, towns and villages of the country.

Commenting on the tie up Mr. George Paul, Executive Vice President, HCL Infosystems said, “Today, the need to create a progressive environment of growth is more than ever before. Indian economy, in the past few years, has grown but the growth can be accelerated and made more inclusive by providing an impetus to IT education in rural India that in turn will impart development of modern IT skills among rural youth. We are sure that this initiative by HCL CDC and CNRI will go a long way in setting benchmarks for taking ICT education to path-breaking levels.”

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