A revolutionary e-Learning tool could soon be used across < ?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />
The adaptive assessment and e-Learning tool called LearnITy, which is keyed to global standards, has been developed by a team of researchers at Kolkata’s
Uganda has been named among the top 10 African Countries that have made advances in Information Technology.< ?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
Uganda's Information and Communication Technology (ICT) State Minister John Chrysastom Alintuma Nsambu said that the government had a grand plan of improving the teaching of Computer Science in Schools. Nsambu said ICT ministry intended to boost the teaching computer science as part of government's over all plan of improving the standards of education in the country.
Addressing the first plenary session of the 17th Conference of Commonwealth Education Ministers in Kuala Lumpur, Union HRD Minister Kapil Sibal urged developing nations to ensure maximum utilisation of the demographic advantage they possessed. He emphasized that the education must keep pace with technological development and use tools like Information & Communication Technology (ICT) to ensure that quality education reaches children in the remotest areas. He also added that regional, national and local conditions also needed to be taken into account for a human resource development strategy as there was no successful 'one size fits all' approach.
Elaborating on the concept of 'Skill Development', the minister said that each country must assess its own economy and empower its youth by providing them the skills necessary for contributing to economic development. He also added that 'structural reforms' and 'out of the box' thinking was required in the education sector to re-orient it to meet the growing aspirations of people.
There has been a steady increase in the results of Secondary School Leaving Certificate (SSLC) examination from past few years. The overall pass percentage has increased to 70.22 from last year's 66.37. If only fresh candidates are taken into account, then the scale increases further at 75.77 %. Girl Students have fared better at 77.25 % as compared to boys at 74.38 % this year. Schools in rural areas have excelled as well with pass percentage at 71.64 (urban) and 75.26 (rural). While addressing the press on Friday, Kumar G. Naik, Commissioner for Public Instruction said, 'Udupi district has topped the State with 86.39 pass percentage, followed by Mandya with 83.78 and Chikkodi with 82.23.' 'Bidar district even though is still right at the bottom but has shown improvement in the pass percentage though, from 27.39 to 41.08,' he added.
A series of quality initiatives by the department has helped in the improvement of the results, and the focus would be on educationally backward districts. Thirty-five schools have registered zero percent results, but only one among them, in Belgaum district, is a government school. While considering the performance of the schools, South and North Bangalore top the list with the highest number of schools securing 100 % results in these two districts
For years, meritorious students who cracked IIT-JEE filled their preference forms
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.
Manipal Education, a pioneering force in Higher Education, announced the launch of its next generation learning system – EduNxt
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.
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.
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.
