First central university set up in Haryana

Higher Education

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April 16, 2009

A new central university has started started functioning in the state's educationally and economically backward Mahendragarh district of Haryana.. Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda inaugurated the first academic session of the university, in the district, 300 km from Chandigarh. With its own campus spread over 500 acres at Jant-Pali town, 7 km from Mahendragarh town, yet to be built, classes of the university have been started from the complex of B.Ed. College, Narnaul. Mool Chand Sharma is the first vice-chancellor of the university. The university is going to be fully funded by the central government and the first batch has 32 students for M.Phil and Ph.D. Saying that the 21st century was the “knowledge century” and India needed to keep pace with it by investing in the field of education, Hooda said the state government is doing everything to promote Haryana as an education hub.

'Our government is making efforts to make Haryana emerge as an education hub. The Rajiv Gandhi Education City is being set up in Sonipat district. North India's first women university, the Bhagat Phool Singh Women University has been set up at Khanpur Kalan and a medical college for women is also being established there,' Hooda said. 'In addition to it, many major institutes were being set up in the state. These included a Medical College in Mewat, Sainik School in district Rewari and an Indian Institute of Management (IIM) at Rohtak,' he said. There is also a plan to set up a Defence University in Gurgaon district, Hooda said. The Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences in Rohtak has been upgraded as a University of Health Sciences, he added.

Apple’s iPhones make breakthrough in Education

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April 16, 2009

Apple's iPhone has trumped the BlackBerry as the device to provide off-site email access for NSW Department of Education and Training staff. The department has bought 56 iPhones from its telecom supplier, Telstra, and decided on Apple's popular handset after finding Research in Motion's BlackBerry did not function as well with its network. The iPhones provide email access to staff when they are out of the office or outside working hours. 'The iPhones have been handed out across the board to people who need to access DET email after hours,' said a spokesman. There could be more iPhones operating on the department's network, but these had been purchased privately by staff such as teachers. The department originally considered the BlackBerry but after testing discovered it was not supported by the department's network. 'We don't use the BlackBerry because it does not synchronise with our emails,' said the spokesman. The spokesman did not clarify exactly why BlackBerry devices would not work with the department's network and did not provide pricing information.

The state Government's bulk purchase is an important win for Apple, which has struggled to penetrate the corporate mobile email market, which is dominated by the BlackBerry. Apple's iPhone has captured the imagination of consumers but this has not translated into success in business, as most executives still prefer to use the BlackBerry to manage email. Last year Apple took its first real bite at the market by introducing functionality to synchronise the iPhone with a Microsoft Exchange server, which typically handles corporate email. At the time several law firms admitted they were testing the device, but as of late last year none had taken the next step to deploy the technology throughout the business. Some IT executives also expressed concern over the iPhone's security credentials, saying they were not as strong as those of the BlackBerry.

Shrawan Kumar gets Canada’s highest civilian award

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digitalLEARNING Network

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April 16, 2009

A scientist of Indian origin has been given Canada's highest civilian award – the Order of Canada. Recently, Shrawan Kumar was honoured for his three decades of pioneering research on workplace injury and the spine at the University of Alberta. Alumnus of Allahabad University, Kumar did his masters in zoology. After his higher studies in Britain, he worked from 1971 to 1973 at the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences where he set up the first biomechanics laboratory. Before landing in Canada in 1974, he was an assistant director at the Central Labour Institute in Mumbai.

Being one of the 57 prominent Canadians who have been bestowed with the nation's highest civilian award for their excellence in various fields, Kumar has been honoured for contributions to the field of rehabilitation ergonomics, in Canada and abroad. Over the last 40 years, more than 5,000 people, including many Indian-Canadians, have been given this honour.

Experts in behaviour management to help schools

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April 16, 2009

Teams of behaviour experts will be sent into schools in England where behaviour is rated as merely 'satisfactory,' said Schools' Secretary Ed Balls. Government adviser Sir Alan Steer has said in a key report on discipline that 'satisfactory isn't good enough.' Figures obtained by the Tories suggest the number of children repeatedly suspended for a fixed period is rising. But Ed Balls says the government supports head teachers where they need to permanently exclude students. Sir Alan's report said there was much evidence that behaviour in schools was good and improving. At the annual conference of the Nasuwt teaching union, some teachers questioned this view. Where Ofsted rates a school's behaviour as 'satisfactory,' local authorities should see this as a trigger for additional support, said Sir Alan's report. He said no new legal powers to discipline pupils were needed, but that awareness of them needed to be raised.

Sir Alan's report recommends the use of 'withdrawal rooms,' or other alternative provision, to remove a disruptive child from a class until behaviour improves. But some teachers have warned these can be abused. Teachers at the Nasuwt conference said some students wanted to be sent out of lessons. Jules Donaldson, a teacher from Sandwell, said, 'They're supping their cups of tea and toast. At some schools they're queuing up to get into the withdrawal rooms.' Just under 30% of schools have a behaviour rating of satisfactory. The Conservatives claim the government has made it more difficult for schools to permanently exclude children from school, but Ed Balls denied this. The number of children excluded more than 10 times in a single year went up from 310 in 2004 to 837 in 2007, showed the figures. Sir Alan said that school provision out of the classroom should be used as part of a planned early intervention strategy and, if possible, before incidents of serious misbehaviour occur. If a child is permanently excluded from school, there can be an appeal to an independent panel to try to be reinstated. The Conservatives say they would abolish these panels, but the Steer report says they are necessary to avoid schools having to justify decisions in the courts. They also say that potential fines for permanently excluding badly-behaved pupils mean schools are choosing to repeatedly exclude for a fixed period instead.

Schools to be digitalised in Nairobi

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April 16, 2009

A plan worth Sh18 billion has been made to equip schools and other education institutions with computers is launched in Nairobi.< ?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

The National Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Strategy for Education and Training plan aims at all educational institutions to be equipped with digital technology equipment in the next five years. It is also meant to ensure that the technology is fully integrated in all academic programmes and school management as well as Ministry of Education departments. It is also meant to ensure that the technology is fully integrated in all academic programmes and school management as well as Ministry of Education departments. The plan is jointly prepared by the ministry and the Kenya ICT Trust Fund, which brings together more than 20 government agencies and private firms. Kenya has 20,000 primary and 4,302 secondary schools, 641 of them private. The ratio of computers to students in public universities stands at one to 45 while in secondary schools; it stands at one to 120 students.

Social sector spending to strengthen IT in India

Higher Education

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digitalLEARNING Network

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April 16, 2009

A study by Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and consultancy Eanst and Young ( E&Y) has emphasised on the need of a potential and vibrant use of technology in education, rural employment and power reforms in India. The government's Unique ID (UID) project has attracted a lot of attention among vendors locally and globally. However, less publicised social sector programmes such as the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) in education and National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) for rural employment also have significant technology spends. “The three flagship schemes – SSA, NREGS and Accelerated Power Development and Reform Programme (APDRP) – could alone generate $1 billion in revenues,” said Milan Sheth, partner, Business Advisory Services, E&Y.

The penetration of ICT (information, communication and technology) in Indian schools is currently only 17%, and there is a specific allocation of Rs 5,000 crore to improve use of technology and communication in education. In addition, technology can also be used to overcome many of the challenges being faced in the education sector and in implementing programmes like the SSA to universalise elementary education by 2010. Under the Eleventh Five Year Plan, the outlay for education is Rs 2,70,000 crore and E&Y estimates that around 3-4% of social sector outlays are spent on ICT, both directly and indirectly. The potential opportunity for IT vendors in this sector can include virtual universities, telecentres for education, and even biometric technologies.

Cracking CAT ’09

Higher Education

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digitalLEARNING Network

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April 16, 2009

MBA is a career that is preferred by many engineering students, as the industry requires candidates from technical as well as management backgrounds. The motive behind the preference for this strategic combination is that a techno-management candidate can implement the best of both fields in his job. A candidate opting for a career in management has to undergo an aptitude test, followed by a group discussion and a personal interview. One of the most challenging entrance exams for entering the management stream at an all India level is CAT (Common Admission Test), which is conducted by seven Indian Institutes of Management (IIM) for admission to their PG programmes in management. The most common question in the mind of a candidate aspiring to get into the IIMs is, 'Why is CAT considered to be one of the toughest exams?' Probably the IIMs want to absorb only the best of the lot or perhaps the MNCs prefer hiring the most talented candidates. IIMs like to spring surprises to keep the charm and unpredictability of the exam intact.

Let us now take on the big question, How to crack the CAT? Generally, engineering students undertake CAT preparation from their sixth semester onwards. The syllabus of the CAT is based on eighth, ninth and tenth standard mathematics, along with verbal ability and reasoning, which includes reading comprehension, synonyms, antonyms and similar topics. The methodology for cracking the CAT involves regular study for two to three hours, which includes reading books, problem-solving sessions and answering time-bound mock tests. It is recommended that candidates meticulously deal with each topic in the syllabus and be absolutely clear about the concepts. The CAT always tests your understanding of the basics. Once the candidate believes that his concepts are sound, he should attempt problems from the lowest level and gradually increase the difficulty levels.

HU faculty to cut US$ 220 million from its budget in next two years

Higher Education

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digitalLEARNING Network

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April 16, 2009

Harvard University's Faculty of Arts and Sciences, the teaching body for most undergraduate classes at Harvard College, will slice US$ 220 million from its budget over the next two years because of endowment losses. The faculty will form six working groups composed of teachers, staff and students to help determine which programs to trim because of the 19 % cut, said Michael Smith, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, in a talk with teachers and staff yesterday. The faculty, which also includes Harvard's engineering, continuing education and graduate arts and sciences units, has a budget of about US$ 1.15 billion. He said that investment losses that are expected to slash the value of Harvard University's endowment by 30 % are demanding that cuts be made in the school's academic programs, Smith said. The working groups will be charged with finding ways to make those reductions.

The working groups aren't being formed 'to squeeze more efficiencies out of the system,' Smith said in a talk on the school's campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts. 'We have to get running with this, in the right direction, which is to reshape the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.' Building programs, new hiring, and an expanded financial aid program have all added new costs at the school, Smith said, 'These are things we don't want to go backward on.'

Most Ahmedabad primary schools can’t prove safety

K-12

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digitalLEARNING Network

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April 16, 2009

Nearly 80% of the 10,000-odd primary schools in Ahmedabad having classes I to VII can't produce recent proof to show their buildings are safe. Simply because the state government hasn't made it mandatory for them to conduct periodic building safety audits. In the event of an evacuation process during earthquake or fire, children would be in danger of stampedes or asphyxiation. The Kumbakonam fire tragedy five years ago in Tamil Nadu and Dabwali incident in Haryana in 1995 are tacit reminders of what could happen. Officials say many primary schools operate from unsafe buildings because of the requirement of one-acre space for 250 students in Bombay Primary Education (BPE) Act, 1949. 'In cities like Ahmedabad, we didn't have that kind of space to set up a primary school, so many clauses were compromised through subsequent notifications and amendments,' admits a senior state education official.

Today, you can see several primary schools operating from shopping complexes and apartments across the city. Nursery schools that have mushroomed don't even figure in the BPE Act. 'We take an assurance from primary school administrations that they should install fire safety measures and obtain Building Use (BU) permission. But, a regular audit of safety features in buildings is not commonly done,' says district education officer PB Gadhvi. As for nursery schools, district primary education officer SP Chaudhry says, 'They were never considered part of primary education. So, provisions of BPE Act don't apply to them. The safety of their buildings needs to be looked into.'

Computer Science Curriculum to be revised in Nigerian Local Universities

Higher Education

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digitalLEARNING Network

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April 16, 2009

With the dawn of the information and communication technology (ICT) revolution, computer science education was introduced not only as a full degree/diploma and certificate programmes in Nigerian universities, polytechnics and colleges of education, as well as at other levels of the Nigeria education system, but it has also been made a mandatory requirement for every Nigerian university graduate at least at the appreciation level, so as to produce graduates that can fit into the workplace and be competitive in the dynamic, fast-paced global information economy. The move as brilliant as it is was based on an academic framework that is not only outdated but counter productive, as it led to the production of graduates of poor quality that can not fit into the marketplace, let alone competing with their counterparts from other parts of the world. The reason for this is not far-fetched.

Apart from non periodic review of the curriculum to meet changing requirements of the time, the teaching facilities (labs, library, PCs, software, books et cetera), teaching methodology and available expertise was not only inadequate but below standards as obtained in advanced countries.

Computer science, as a specialized field of discipline in the physical and applied sciences require training in diverse fields apart from general sciences like mathematics, statistics, physics, chemistry and biology. A computer scientist is expected to have demonstrable competence in the field of software development, database administration, networking and communication systems, computer engineering and maintenance, Operating Systems programming, information management and security et cetera. To achieve the above stated aim, Nigerian universities introduce their computer science students to structured computer programming languages like BASIC, FORTRAN, PASCAL and COBOL that are not only limited in their scope of applications but also obsolete.

As a result the students’ ability to perfect their act in the critical field of software development, which has fetched India billions of dollars through software job outsourcing by governments and multinational corporations, is seriously hampered as they are not taught with industry-standard object-oriented programming languages like JAVA, C, C++, VB/VB.NET et cetera, that are the norm in other climes. Coupled with this is the non-standardization of the operating system used for teaching the course, leading to a situation where computer science students are taught with desktop operating systems like Microsoft Windows XP Professional, instead of network operating systems like UNIX, LINUX and its variants like Fedora Core Release 5 et cetera.

The importance of computer science education as a tool for social, cultural, economic, political and technological emancipation, empowerment, and advancement cannot be overemphasized. Asian and Western nations recognizing this strategic importance invested heavily in IT education decades ago and are currently reaping the benefit of their investments. Without putting in place the right academic framework in the form of IT education curriculum, necessary facilities and expertise it would not have been possible. Today, most IT jobs by governments and multinational corporations in banking and finance, insurance, energy, aerospace and aviation, oil and gas, defence systems et cetera are outsourced to India because of its quality IT manpower, netting billions of dollars in the process.

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