Monday, March 30, 2026
Facebook Instagram Linkedin Twitter Youtube
Home Blog Page 1535

Tough govt., no autonomy to schools

By
digitalLEARNING Network
-

The Directorate of Education's advice that schools follow a standardised approach to nursery admissions has not gone down well with several umbrella bodies of private schools which believe the Supreme Court has given them enough power to frame individual admission criteria. On October 27, the Directorate of Education (DoE) had asked schools to distribute a standardised registration form, all between December 15 and 31 and to complete the submission procedure by January 7, 2009. Education Secretary Rina Ray has said schools are expected to follow the new timeline in 'good faith and fairness'.

An interim order from the Supreme Court gives autonomy to private, recognised schools to put together their own admission procedure and schedule. President S K Bhattacharya of the Action Committee – a body that represents 1,900 unaided private schools – said he will soon convene a meeting to discuss the new guidelines. Bhattacharya said, 'We shall protest if the recent order contradicts that of the apex court's. Regularisation may not always be good for healthy education.' He also said the government's claim that the guidelines have come up after consultation with schools is ambiguous. 'Many schools have already started issuing forms. How can they do it if they knew what the government was going to do?' he asked.

Scholarships see a 14-fold increase in applications

By
digitalLEARNING Network
-

The UPA Government instituted pre-matriculation, post-matriculation and merit-cum-means scholarships for minorities (Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Parsis among others) last year. Following widespread advertising in print, broadcast and Internet media, the scholarships drew around 3.5 lakh applications in 2007-'08. This year, the number has jumped a staggering 14-fold to nearly half a crore applications. The scholarships, meant for meritorious minority students lacking financial means, are offered in all states, allocations being proportionate to the minority population. Scholarships are available for institutions like the IITs, NIFT, SPA, medical colleges, Regional Engineering Colleges and several universities.

The overwhelming response has cut across states and parties in power. In the pre-matriculation category, Left-ruled Kerala (with 29,380 scholarships on offer) has received 14 lakh applications. Mayawati-ruled UP (with 67,420 scholarships) has seen 10.5 lakh applications so far. Left-ruled West Bengal, which has 44,460 scholarships, has received 7.5 lakh applications, and BJP-ruled Karnataka (16,640 scholarships) has received 2 lakh applications. DMK-ruled Tamil Nadu (15,340 scholarships) has received 3 lakh applications.

FG urged to train nomads as teachers

By
digitalLEARNING Network
-

Dr. Nafisatu Mohammad , the Executive Secretary, National Commission for Nomadic Education (NCNE), has called for the training of youths with nomadic background to serve as teachers in the nomadic Education Project (NEP). Mohammad, who made the call in Abuja in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria ( NAN) , disclosed that the commission was exploring a partnership with nomadic communities to facilitate the training of their youths as teachers.

She noted that experience had shown that the youths could serve effectively as teachers if their training was done in a way that was acceptable to the community and relevant to their needs and aspirations. The NCNE boss also called for the recruitment and training of female teachers for the programme to increase the number of teachers available for the programme nationwide. Mohammad also spoke of the need to involve nomads directly in the planning and implementation of policies and programmes to achieve a reasonable measure of success in the eradication of illiteracy in the country. Mohammed further said that nomadic education should address the basis of peoples' involvement in education programmes to sustain their interest.

Clicker technology

By
digitalLEARNING Network
-

To some academicians, clickers are a great new technology, allowing professors to measure instantly whether students in a large class are grasping new concepts (or are even in class). To others, clickers represent a depersonalizing influence. At the annual meeting of 'Educause,' an organization of college technology officials, the former appeared solidly in the majority. Indeed, at a session on the use of clickers, officials of three large universities reported that once professors start to use clickers, the devices' popularity took off, and not just in mammoth lecture classes. To these officials, the questions about clickers weren't of the 'Should we use them or not?' variety but of the policy variety: Should institutions support only one model on campus or whatever professors pick? Who is responsible for training professors in their use? Should certain uses of clickers be discouraged or encouraged?

To inform the discussion, officials of the Universities of Delaware, Maryland at College Park, and Pittsburgh each conducted surveys of students and faculty members on clicker use. The findings and their implications were discussed here Friday at the 'Educause' meeting.

Greener campus in making

By
digitalLEARNING Network
-

College technology officials say environmentally friendly policies can save IT departments millions as campuses across the United States adjust to tighter operating budgets. At a forum discussion with chief information officers and campus administrators, Wendell C. Brase, vice chancellor for administrative and business services at the University of California Irvine, said tech officials should know their college's carbon footprint, promote more energy-efficient ways to cool servers, and cut energy usage in laboratories that generally use the majority of a campus's electricity.

Brase gave his presentation at the 10th annual EDUCAUSE conference in Orlando, where thousands gathered Oct. 28-31 to discuss the latest in higher-education technology use. Brase stressed that green policies should not be isolated to campus IT departments. At UC Irvine, he predicted, student housing would increase dramatically in the coming years, cutting down on the number of students who commute to class every day. 'This is the greenest thing a college or university can do,' he said, adding that about half of UC Irvine's students live on campus, a number well above the national average. Because students still will need transportation without their cars on campus, Brase said the campus has bought bio-diesel buses that are carbon neutral, meaning the amount of harmful carbons expelled by the vehicles is limited.

ICT learning received encouragement

By
digitalLEARNING Network
-

Speaking at a briefing held by the Meraka Institute and SAP Research Unit for Technology Development (UTD) yesterday, education minister Naledi Pandor, Johannesburg, explained the primary concern for government is to increase the ICT skills pool. 'We can't allow SA to produce 20 PHDs a year; it's just not good enough.' She pointed to the efforts of SA's technology counterpart, India, which produces around 300 ICT higher graduates a year. She explained that India focused its attention on becoming an ICT economy and encouraged students to maintain their studies. 'I think we have a challenge in SA on the human capital side. It's a scarce skill that we can no longer afford to be comfortable about,' she added. The minister explained that government is trying to address the matter from the tertiary education level, by focusing on maths and science.

Pandor also acknowledged the research being conducted by the Meraka-SAP UTD, which has used mobile technology to educate teachers. The programme, which started in the North West Province, uses mobile education modules that train teachers in the benefits of using technologies in the classroom. According to Darelle van Greunen, of the UTD and a lecturer at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University and research director on the project, while the research on the results of the pilot project is still under way, the initial reports show teachers benefited from the experience. The minister also congratulated other projects being conducted by the research collaboration, which has focused its research on the creation of ICT for the development of small and micro businesses.

NZCS Supported by School ICT Policy

By
digitalLEARNING Network
-

The New Zealand Computer Society (NZCS) today congratulated the National Party on the high prioritisation given to Computing and ICT in their Schools Policy. The policy document, released today, includes provision for US$500m of additional capital spending in schools, with ICT infrastructure listed as one of the priorities, as well as a commitment to new Computing (and Business) Achievement Standards. 'This now means that both major parties support the provision of Computing Achievement Standards, which is very significant,' NZCS Chief Executive Paul Matthews said today.

Earlier this year NZCS released a report reviewing the current state of ICT-related NCEA Achievement Standards in schools. The highly detailed report, reviewed by a team of 13 senior ICT academics and professionals, found that none of the standards were suitable and recommended they be urgently reviewed and replaced. The Ministry of Education responded by announcing an intention to review the existing standards and create a full set of 'Digital Technologies Achievement Standards' over the next 2 years, and Education Minister Hon Chris Carter has supported this. However Matthews said 'the fact that one of the major parties have now recognised how important this significant area of concern is, to the extent of listing it in their core Schools Policy Document, is extremely encouraging.'

21st century school building plan

By
digitalLEARNING Network
-

National Party Leader John Key says a National-led Government will inject an additional US$500 million into school property funding over the next three years to allow for a 21st Century School Building Programme. 'There is an urgent and overdue need to plan for the future by improving and expanding current schools and building new ones. Labour has taken a 'plaster over the cracks' approach to school property and it is has failed to future-proof our schools. 'National is committed to getting Upper Hutt school buildings up-to-standard and we will commit the funding needed to ensure this happens. We will make an additional capital injection of at least US$30 million into the Upper Hutt schools affected by Labour's building moratorium to help make up for the shortfall in property funding.”

Key noted that Upper Hutt College, Heretaunga College, Maidstone Intermediate and Fergusson Intermediate were all subject to a freeze on property spending under Labour. 'We will work with these schools to determine their needs and allocate funding accordingly. Upper Hutt is one of many communities in New Zealand where school buildings are increasingly unfit for New Zealand's future.'

Signs of Progress in the Education System

By
digitalLEARNING Network
-

With this year's Education Fair approaching at the beginning of November, education and ‎training providers from all over the world will gather in Tripoli, Libya, hoping to attract students ‎to their institutes. Students from all over Libya will in turn be hustling and bustling from ‎one stand to another trying to find an appropriate university that suits them and that will ‎accept them.‎ Talking to many foreign educational establishments at last year's Education Libya fair ‎and at the ELTEX education fair earlier this year, it became clear that although many ‎students had obtained the much sought after financial grant to obtain a degree abroad, ‎many will not be successful.‎

The reason is that many students don't have a good enough standard of English to get ‎them accepted by respected universities. Other students' English language level is so ‎weak, that it would take them more than the 1 year pre-sessional English language ‎training offered by many universities to help ensure overseas students can fully ‎participate in higher education programmes taught in English. ‎Universities with reputations to protect are resisting the temptation to boost their fee ‎income, at the expense of admitting foreign students who haven't got the English ‎language skills to make the most of the academic opportunity and experience. ‎

Universities and the global crisis

By
digitalLEARNING Network
-

The effect of the world financial upheaval on higher education institutions around the globe varies markedly from one nation to another, depending on the extent that their banks and currencies have been affected by what is taking place in America and Europe. Universities in countries experiencing an economic downturn, with consumer confidence shattered and unemployment on the rise, are already curtailing their spending and some have begun putting off staff. Even if they face no immediate threat, many institutions that rely for a significant part of their income on student fees

1...1,5341,5351,536...1,761Page 1,535 of 1,761

LATEST NEWS

EDITOR PICKS

Top Trending News

POPULAR POSTS

Top Trending Categories

POPULAR CATEGORY

Latest Articles

© Elets Technomedia Pvt Ltd ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.