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UGC proposed for declaration of Women’s Studies Centres as statutory departments

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digitalLEARNING Network
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The UGC had invited proposals for establishment of WSCs in Universities/Colleges under the scheme of 'Development of Women Studies in Indian Universities and Colleges' in the Tenth Five-Year Plan. However, the guidelines for the Eleventh Plan have taken a broader view by suggesting that these study centres should become teaching and research departments under the university system. Shashi Rai, member, UGC, said, 'Currently, there are 62 WSCs in various colleges and universities, which do not necessarily have a clear understanding of the aims and objectives with which the UGC had initiated the programme.' He added WSCs faced considerable difficulties due to the lack of clarity about their roles and the terms under which the UGC disburses its grants. A lot of money has been spent to address women's issues, but the academic part has not been monitored well so far, he said.

The new guidelines for the Eleventh Five-Year Plan propose to convert these study centres into departments with specific focus on academics, teaching, training amd advocacy, dissemination of knowledge and field action projects, he further added. A research chair for women's studies at the UGC level has been proposed under the scheme of Women's Studies in the Eleventh Plan. In the Tenth Plan, the UGC had funded 51 centres in universities and 16 centres in colleges. The budget allocation for these centres was Rs 10 crore. The Eleventh Plan proposed to double the grant.

BPO jobs targeted by Pune Varsity

By
digitalLEARNING Network
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The University of Pune is planning to churn out 50,000 business process outsourcing (BPO) professionals every year through a 'distance learning' training programme it has launched in association with Cisco and the newly-formed firm Global Talent Track (GTT). The management reasons that employment opportunities through conventional streams are few and this new optional course will help students get jobs in the BPO sector. Initiated by university vice-chancellor and economist Narendra Jadhav, the programme will enrol teachers and students from 100 affiliated colleges in Pune, Ahmednagar and Nashik districts.

Colleges participating in the programme would take care of the infrastructure and connectivity required for the programme. GTT will design and develop content, training modules and a help-desk for participants; Cisco would be responsible for interconnectivity and upgrade of connectivity required at colleges. 'The training modules have been designed so that students will have an option to select modules of their interest and liking. The ever-growing BPO sector needs employable graduates, which the current educational system is unable to provide. This programme will provide vocational education to students during their graduation years so that they immediately find a job in a BPO firm. The course is not mandatory,' said Jadhav.

ngNOG to build digital capacity in Nigeria

By
digitalLEARNING Network
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The University of Lagos and the Nigeria ICT Forum of Partnership Institutions have commenced arrangement for the 3rd edition of the Nigerian Network Operators Group. The forum, was targeted at building capacity and exchanging technical knowledge by way of workshop and meetings, said ngNOG. Speaking on the development, the Chief Executive Officer, Datasphir Solution Limited, Omo Olaiya, said the forum slated for Unilag this month, was dedicated to the application of technology in education to foster research and learning in Nigeria. He said the ngNOG community was driven by higher education and largely drawn from technical and administrative personnel in the networking and ICT departments of tertiary institutions.

According to him, the private sector partners include Internet Service Providers, technology vendors and telecommunications companies, which make financial contributions as well as instruct, and international organisations which donate equipments and books. According to the Project Officer, the Nigeria ICT Forum of Partnership Institutions, Sekyen Lois Niyang, added the project was bringing together ICT managers in educational and commercial organisations, engineering staff from network service providers, policy makers and administrators from regulatory bodies and members of research and education community. The forum which will take-off in the University of Lagos, hoped to provide an avenue for ICT technology service providers to showcase their technologies.

Mixed Reactions to AICTE permission for running evening classes

By
digitalLEARNING Network
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The All Indian Council for Technical Education (AICTE) may have given a reprieve to existing and new engineering institutions by allowing them, among other things, permission to run evening engineering and polytechnic colleges. However, there are mixed reactions to the decision. Institutes with at least four years of standing in the states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chhatisgarh, Delhi, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and other union territories are expected to benefit from the move. AICTE has allowed the facility to institutes in these these states to correct regional and stream-wise imbalances degree- and diploma-level institutions. 'The permission for evening engineering and polytechnic classes in existing colleges would allow the best use of libraries, computer labs, classrooms, etc. The cost of education will also reduce,' said an AICTE source.

Welcoming the move, Punjab Unaided Technical Institutions Association President JS Dhaliwal said the permission will help his institute make the best use of infrastructure. However, not everyone in the academic community is elated. 'While this will allow best use of the existing equipment, there is concern about the availability of faculty. Faculty workload will increase and colleges will have to look to hire more faculty amid the reigning faculty crunch,' said a professor from one of the engineering institutions.

IT education insufficient in Zambia

By
digitalLEARNING Network
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According to Dennis Wanchinga, executive director of the National Science and Technology Council, which wishes to undertake an evidence-based assessment of Zambian schools. 'It is the absence of the best basic teaching aids for teaching science that is missing in schools,' Wanchinga said in an interview. 'Pupils have never seen the chemical reactions. The laboratories are poorly equipped. We are not teaching much to develop our own local material for teaching science and depend on foreign material.' Download the latest Network World Executive Guide – Virtualization Reality CheckWhile Lewis Mwape, a physics teacher at Matero Girls Secondary School in Lusaka, said the expense of equipment limits classroom experiments, he makes due with what he has.

'As a teacher, I improvise in some experiments, like on the demonstration of a wave in a ripple tank, and have been using the learning channel on DStv for pupils to learn about science and mathematics,' said Wanchinga. Currently, 0.2 % of the national budget is allocated to the Ministry of Science and Technology, which Wanchinga said is not sufficient. However, the Lagos Plan of Action by Heads of State has agreed that the ministry must receive at least 1 percent of national budget funds. To improve the situation in schools, Zambia needs a strong policy framework anchored by the highest governmental office, Wanchinga said, and training qualified teachers and creating specialized education centers in science and technology must be placed atop the government's agenda.

New e-learning center in QC, Philippines

By
digitalLEARNING Network
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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. Malabanan was fielded by DepEd'a Bureau of Alternative Learning System (BALS) as a mobile teacher.

HCL & Ramakrishna Mission to open Career Development Centre

By
digitalLEARNING Network
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HCL Infosystems Limited, India's premier information enabler and country's leading ICT system integrator and Distribution Company, joined hands with Rama Krishna Mission a well known charitable institution, to open a branch of HCL Career Development Centre (HCL CDC) at Ramakrishna Marg, New Delhi. Under this initiative students will gain from deep domain expertise of HCL CDC apart from getting affordable IT training program offered by Ramakrishna Mission. Keeping in view the reach Ramakrishna Mission has to empower underprivileged; as a part of its CSR initiative HCL has facilitated the existing computer training centre at Ramakrishna Mission through its Career Development Centre to provide affordable world class computer education to the underprivileged.

Under this initiative to improve and inspire the lives of today's youth by providing ICT education, HCL CDC will provide students with course material, practical classes, hands on training, communications skills and guest lectures facilities. HCL & Ramakrishna mission will provide affordable training courses, so that poor and students from low income groups, who have passed Senior Secondary Examination can also take advantage of the facilities available in the Fully Air Conditioned Computer Training Centre to earn their livelihood. The HCL CDC provides specially designed courses to groom students into industry-ready professionals. The company already has 70 fully operational HCL CDCs across the country and plans to expand its footprint to meet the growing demand of skilled ICT professionals.

Dept of Education moves to sustain Internet program

By
digitalLEARNING Network
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To enhance the skills of high school students in Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Department of Education (DepEd) Secretary Jesli Lapus recently took the challenge of sustaining the Internet connection under the Gearing Up Internet Literacy and Access for Students or GILAS spearheaded by the Ayala Foundation. Lapus said that while DepEd is grateful for the support of Ayala Foundation through its GILAS Program, more needs to be done.

Lapus instructed DepEd's Budget Chief to immediately provide additional Maintenance, Operation and Other Expenses (MOOE) funds to schools for covering internet subscription fees and incremental electric consumption charges. The Education Chief said that 'any reduction in rate can be offered as donation to DepEd's Adopt-a-School Program and be entitled to a 150 per cent tax incentive. I am looking forward to signing that MOU with GILAS.' At present, there are 2020 public high schools that have benefited from free internet connection under GILAS. Earlier, the DepEd provide some 6, 000 public secondary schools nationwide with computer laboratories before the school year ends. Lapus said the program is part of their effort to improve IT understanding among students and the quality of basic education in the country.

IIT Madras gets Google grant

By
digitalLEARNING Network
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The Indian Institute of Technology-Madras (IIT-M), which recently introduced engineering courses on Google and YouTube, is set to get up to INR 50 lakh as an academic grant from Google to fund its National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL). The US-headquartered search giant is helping IIT-M develop a text-based search engine to index its video courses. The company will provide the grant to IIT-M in a few months. NPTEL plans to enhance the quality of engineering education in the country by developing curriculum-based video and web courses. Seven IITs and the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, have collaborated to carry out the venture. The IITs have been nominated as the fourth-best institutions in providing free university courses. 'NPTEL was started with the idea of reaching people and teaching them by the means they possess. We do provide content to government colleges, government aided colleges and private universities too,' said Mangala Sunder Krishnan, National Web Courses Coordinator, IIT-Madras. NPTEL in the first phase of the project, has developed around 250 courses. All of these are available online for a duration of 4,500 hours, free of charge.

The Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) has sponsored the project with INR 20 crore. In the second phase, the institute has asked for INR 50 crore from the MHRD. The institute will double the of number of courses and will also conduct 200 workshops for the faculty involved to train themselves. The second phase will be complete in three years.

Rajasthan Knowledge Corporation launched Digital literacy drive

By
digitalLEARNING Network
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A network is proposed to be set up throughout the State beginning with district and sub-divisional headquarters and going down to villages with a population of 2,500 and above. The Corporation signed agreements with ten computer-based industries as programme support agencies here over the weekend for working with the 1,000 information technology 'Gyan Kendras' (knowledge centres) to be established across the State for evolving an institutional mechanism to develop the trained youth manpower with basic IT skills. The Corporation's Chairman, former State Chief Secretary M. L. Mehta, said that on the occasion that the project would help the youths in getting direct and indirect employment, besides bridging the digital divide and fulfilling the manpower needs of a thriving software product business.

The Rajasthan Knowledge Corporation is a multi-stakeholder public limited company comprising the Rajasthan Government; Maharashtra Knowledge Corporation, Mumbai; University of Rajasthan, Jaipur; Maharana Pratap University of Agriculture and Technology, Udaipur; Vardhaman Mahaveer Open University, Kota; and Centre for e-Governance, Jaipur.

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