In the presence of Salah Elewa, Director of Technology Development Center, and Hoda Baraka, Director, Egyptian Education Initiative (EEI) and First Deputy to the Minister of Communications and Information Technology of Egypt, Intel in collaboration with Edu Systems International (ESI) today announced the launch of its digital education content platform, skoool
A new but familiar face is leading the way at Bidford Primary School as a new headteacher was appointed at the start of the term. Former deputy head Andy Simms has taken up the post after starting the academic year as the acting headteacher. He has worked at the school for three years as its deputy and is looking forward to the new challenge as well as introducing a creative curriculum. Simms said, 'I am a great enthusiast for a creative curriculum and have the energy and tenacity to promote high standards and to deal with the challenges facing primary education.'
He came to the school from St David's Primary in Moreton and has lived in the area for 20 years, something he said has helped him understand the needs of rural communities. Simms added, 'In the long term I want to educate all our pupils to become healthy, reflective, self motivated individuals, confident in their own learning.'
Following its first successful academic year, the Afghanistan Technical Vocational Institute (ATVI) announces the expansion of the Institute to a new campus in Laghman province. ATVI is the product of a very successful public/private partnership between the ANHAM, LLC affiliate Knowlogy International (KI) and the Government of Afghanistan. This coeducational, post-secondary technical vocational institute prepares graduates for employment in four sectors: information and communications technology (ICT), agriculture, construction and vehicle maintenance.
Construction of the major components of the satellite campus began in August 2008 and is currently 80% complete for a capacity of 500 students. The curriculum offers junior college level technical vocational education in 5 areas: ICT, construction trades, horticulture, auto mechanics and management/administration/finance. These skill areas have been identified by the Afghanistan Government and by international organizations as essential to future economic development. The working plan has been carefully laid out with ATVI initially providing training for 600 male and female students, and targeting to graduate up to 5,000 male and female students per year, drawn from Kabul, other major cities, and the rural areas. In addition to the groundbreaking of the satellite campus, the girl's dorm at ATVI's main campus is ready to open and provide occupancy for 150 students. The facility is built in high quality standards with wide, large rooms which are well equipped with modern bathing, dining and recreation facilities and cold and hot water around the clock.
India's US$40b education market is experiencing a surge in investment. Capital, both local and international, and innovative legal structures are changing the face of this once-staid sector. The liberalization of India's industrial policy in 1991 was the catalyst for a wave of investment in IT and infrastructure projects. Rapid economic growth followed, sparking a surge in demand for skilled and educated workers. This, combined with the failure of the public system to provide high quality education and the growing willingness of the burgeoning middle class to spend money on schooling, has transformed India's education sector into an attractive and fast-emerging opportunity for foreign investment. Despite being fraught with regulatory restrictions, private investors are flocking to play a part in the 'education revolution.' A recent report by CLSA (Asia-Pacific Markets) estimated that the private education market is worth around US$40 billion. The K-12 segment alone, which includes students from kindergarten to the age of 17, is thought to be worth more than US$20 billion. The market for private colleges (engineering, medical, business, etc.) is valued at US$7 billion while tutoring accounts for a further US$5 billion.
Other areas such as test preparation, pre-schooling and vocational training are worth US$1-2 billion each. Textbooks and stationery, educational CD-ROMs, multimedia content, child skill enhancement, e-learning, teacher training and finishing schools for the IT and the BPO sectors are some of the other significant sectors for foreign investment in education.
UK universities should push to become world leaders in online higher education, ministers will say tomorrow, despite the failure of the UK e-University four years ago. The universities secretary, John Denham, is likely to call not for a revival of the UKeU, which collapsed in 2004, but to develop a 'global Open University in the UK.' A report for the government on the future of British higher education online suggests the UK is seen as world-class, and often world-leading, in networking, content and digital libraries, as well as access management and many areas of e-learning.
But it lags behind in generating and making available high-quality modern online learning and teaching resources. The report by Ron Cooke, chairman of the UK universities' Joint Information Systems Committee, suggests creating centres of expertise in educational technology and e-teaching through clusters of institutions, with comprehensive staff and student training. Learning resources should be grouped together, coordinated nationally and provided freely, he will say. Institutions should be encouraged to use virtual education technologies for their students and share them with similar universities, the report suggests. Effective and competitive online learning at both undergraduate and postgraduate level would help meet students' changing needs and stimulate growth in both higher education and the skills sector, and save staff time.
Multichoice Nigeria, in partnership with SchoolNet, has given 10 schools in Ogun State a boost by providing them with a resource centre equipped with an education bouquet that would enhance teaching, learning and management processes in the classrooms.The beneficiary schools included Abeokuta Girls Grammar School, Abeokuta, African Church Grammar School, Abeokuta, Odogbolu Grammar School, Odogbolu, Yewa College, Ilaro and AUD College, Ota. Others were Makun High School School, Sagamu, Our Lady of Apostles, Ijebu Ode, Adeola Oduntola College, Ijebu Ode, among others.
Each school received one DSTV decoder, a television set, stabilizer, a video recorder, generating set, education bouquet of channels, blank cassettes, metal cabinet, plastic chairs and tables. SchoolNet had also conducted a three-day teacher training programme for selected teachers from the beneficiary schools. Managing Director of Multi Choice Nigeria, Joseph Hundah, said, at the commissioning of one of the centres, held recently at the African Church Grammar school, Abeokuta, that the bouquet combines the sound and imagery of television to support teaching and learning in schools.
The Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT) has opened its seventh e-learning center in Loyola Heights under its eSkwela project. The CICT through its Human Capital Development Group (CICT HCDG) launched in 2005 eSkwela to provide disadvantaged youth with educational opportunities to help reduce the digital divide and enhance their capacity to be successful participants in a global and knowledge-based economy. The Loyola Heights center received an enrollment of 55 learners, mostly aged below 20.
The eSkwela project hopes to provide opportunity for Filipino out-of-school youths and adults (OSYAs) to go back to school. According to a 2004 study by the Department of Education, there are 15 million Filipino out-of-school youths and adults. A major cause of this is poverty. Instead of going to school, children from poor families start working at an early age to help provide for their families. According to the Functional Literacy, Education and Mass Media Survey (FLEMMS), public education in the country is free but the poor find it difficult to cover transportation, food and allowances cost of going to school.
ATVI is a co-educational facility in Kabul, Afghanistan, where students are competitively selected through an examination process for the one-year condensed course. ATVI provides training for male and female students, drawn from Kabul, other major cities, and the rural areas. As a co-educational institution designed to support and educate all potentially productive members of Afghan society, ATVI strives to maintain a minimum threshold of 10% female enrollment. Courses are offered in our key training sectors: Automotive Systems Technology, Information and Communications Technology (ICT), Building and Construction Trades, and Horticulture. ATVI faculty and staff are highly qualified; all hold international educations, degrees, and certifications. More than half of the faculty members hold a Master's degree or higher.
In order to build a self-sufficient, income generating institute, ATVI incorporates profit centers as a major component of its operations. These profit centers benefit the Institute, the local community, and the student as they provide the hands-on experience needed to compound and complement the education provided in the classroom. Designed to be mutually beneficial, the profit centers offer students the opportunity to experience and train for their chosen career in a real-life environment, the local community purchasing the service is charged a competitive and affordable fee, and the provided revenue is used to maintain scholarship programs and facility upkeep. 'The added state-of-the-art educational equipment will put ATVI on the same educational level as top vocational schools worldwide,' stated Farouki.
Former governor of Lagos State, Alhaji Lateef Jakande has said the country could attain the Education for All (EFA) goals by 2015, if government would construct more schools, train and employ more teachers and make education free at all levels. He said this at the re-union luncheon/merit award/lunching of the N50 million-endowment fund for school development, organised by Odo-Obara High School, Epe Old Students' Association (ODHSOSA), in Lagos at the weekend.
While refuting the argument in some quarters that quality education cannot be free, Jakande said products of the free education of his administration occupied important positions in the country, a position they would not have attained. 'I cannot tell you how many lawyers and doctors emerged from that system and are contributing to the development of the country.' He called for the development of an effective curriculum and efficient of school inspectors, who would pay impromptu visits to schools to enforce quality teaching.
Delhi University (DU) may no longer deprive you of the quality a good teacher brings to the classroom, irrespective of the college you are in. DU's Institute of Life Long Learning (ILLL), DU's year-old venture to promote e-learning, is planning to video record the lectures of the best teachers in the university for different courses and put them online for all students to access. ILLL has got an approval from the University Grants Commission (UGC) to build a studio on the campus where the lectures of these teachers can be shot. 'We will identify the best teachers in all the colleges and ask them to prepare a lecture on a particular segment in the course. We plan to put these videos on the ILLL portal from where students can access them,' said AK Bakhshi, ILLL director at North Campus. He added having such videos online will help students refer to the topic beyond the classroom lectures and may also add value to their self-study.
'Even new teachers can benefit from it. Sitting through the lectures of experienced teachers online will only help them,' said Bakhsi. Though the teachers are yet to be selected for the purpose, the work on the studio may start in a few weeks. 'The studio will be an important facility in the university, to be used for video-conferencing and various other projects as well,' said Bakhshi. The plan may be innovative but teachers don't really seem comfortable with the idea of making a chosen few among them more accessible to students as this would create distinction among teachers. 'The spirit is laudable but the idea of finding the best teachers is contentious. The faculty of all the colleges is equally good. How can one select which teacher is better,' said a teacher of political science from south campus.
