The government constantly reiterates its commitment to the importance of education for the future of economic growth and the development of a knowledge economy. However, there are blatant contradictions between such statements and the Government's actions, particularly in the recent Budget. Even before the latest cuts, the 2008 OECD figures revealed education spending in Ireland has been insufficient to match rapidly rising student numbers. Many OECD countries spend 6.2 % of their Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on educational institutions. In Ireland this figure is 4.6% of GDP. The figures show that in Ireland the proportion of GDP spent on education actually decreased between 1995 and 2005. Over the so-called Celtic Tiger period, it seems the island got richer, but education got poorer. School running costs, such as energy, insurance and cleaning, are not paid for by the State and often individual school fund raising must make up this shortfall. Teachers are relatively well paid on an EU scale, but school facilities are in very bad shape.
The issue now is dealing with how money translates into educational provision. Primary education in Ireland has changed significantly over the past decade. The increasing focus on investment in 'human capital' is reflected in the many laudable aims of the 1999 revised primary school curriculum. The curriculum emphasises a child-centered approach to learning, where the pupil is envisaged as 'an active agent' in their own education. The idea of self-directed, developmental learning is embedded in the primary curriculum's aims and objectives, fostering life-long learning capabilities. The curriculum has also expanded into science, drama and social, personal and health education. All teachers received in-service and curriculum support through the Primary Curriculum Support Programme (PCSP) and School Development Planning Support (SDPS). Despite this, key problems within primary education still exist. The most evident is overcrowding.
LearnHub.com, an online social learning network, has announced the launch of free CAT community on their website. Learnhub.com is a centralised online education destination for teachers and learners, launched by Canada based e-Learning company Savvica Inc in which Indian education content providers Educomp Solutions has a majority stake.
Global talent development corporation NIIT has launched a spectrum of products and solutions for next generation schools under its ‘NIIT eGuru’, in collaboration with Intel and Microsoft. The solutions comprises interactive classrooms for teachers, ‘Math Lab’, and ‘IT Wizard’ for students, and an ERP solution for school management ‘Quick School’.
Scientists at the Watson Research Centre of IBM in Cambridge, Massachusetts, have created an experimental website ‘Many Eyes’ (www.many-eyes.com), where users can upload the data they want to visualise, then try sophisticated tools to generate interactive displays. These might range from maps of relationships in the New Testament to display of the comparative frequency of words used in poltical speeches.
A Silicon Valley company is claiming a major victory in its efforts to sell computers to schools that might otherwise be enticed by low-cost laptops such as the green-and-white XO from One Laptop Per Child or Intel’s Classmate PC. NComputing Inc. has announced it would be providing computers in 5,000 schools in Andhra Pradesh. The deal is expected to benefit 1.8 million students in the state due to the special software they use. .
John Wiley & Sons Inc. and the University of Texas at Austin have announced a partnership in a pilot project to license Wiley’s digital learning materials to students directly via the University. The materials include WileyPLUS, an integrated suite of teaching and learning resources, featuring an online version of the textbook, homework management tools, an online gradebook, interactive tutorials and simulations, as well as image libraries. The primary goals of this pilot are to improve the teaching and learning experience for students and faculty, while reducing the costs to students.
Sources said Takshila Management Services proposes to build three schools in Hoshiarpur (Punjab), Ahmednagar (Maharashtra) and Gaya (Bihar) to be ready for the coming academic fiscal by June 2009. The company has also intended to set up further 25 schools over the next couple of fiscals.
Malaysia has made significant progress in the education field over the years and earned international respect for successfully establishing a commendable education model, UNESCO Director-General Koichiro Matsuura said. ‘We are happy that there has been very good progress in the area of education in Malaysia and the strong leadership of the minister (Education Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein)’ he said.
Quistor, a provider of hosted and fully managed eLearning Solutions for regional and global institutions, has opened its first Asian office in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in a bid to further expand its sales operations in the Asia Pacific region, and support new customers.
A Malaysian firm will be cooperating with one of Saudi Arabia’s largest conglomerates to set up a university in the oil-rich nation. The university will be a branch of the newly-established Asia e-University (AeU), a Kuala Lumpur-based collaborative university ratified by the 30 Asia Cooperation Dialogue countries.
College affordability will be the focus of five public hearings across Pennsylvania. The Higher Education Council under Pennsylvania State Board of Education said it is seeking testimony from students, parents, college officials and others about the challenges of paying for rising college costs. The council also wanted to know how students might be able to obtain a degree without taking on massive debt. Officials say Pennsylvania college students graduate with an average of almost US$ 23,000 in student loan debt.
America’s Harvard University topped the list of top 200 universities of the world by Times Higher Education-QS University Rankings, followed by Yale University from US. Universities of Cambridge and Oxford from the UK were ranked third and fourth. In addition, nine institutions from Asia, including three based in Hong Kong, were included in top 50. British universities slipped down the ranking with Cambridge and Oxford losing ground to Harvard and Yale. India’s two Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT Delhi and Mumbai) have been ranked 154 and 174, respecti-vely in the list. On the other hand, China has as many five universities in top 200.
An increasing proportion of higher education funding in South Africa was being spent on science, engineering and technology, with the improvement of education remaining a medium-term spending priority, according to the National Treasury’s Medium Term Budget Policy Statement.
University Grants Commission has accepted the report of its Pay Review Committee after making some minor changes in its recommendations. Acknowledging that Readers in colleges/universities could have got a better deal, UGC made some changes in the pay band. It also emphasised that after the pay hike, universities will have to ensure high teaching standards. The recommendations will now be sent to the Ministry of HRD, which will consult the Finance Ministry before accepting the recommendations. 
The Ministry of Human Resource Development has redesigned the National Literacy Mission (NLM) to infuse new enthusiasm into it and check the declining rate of literacy. The restructured programme will be known as 'Lok Talim'. Taking inspiration from Mahatma Gandhi's 'Nai Talim', the new name represents India's composite culture as it is a combination of Hindi and Urdu words. 
Following the DU Academic Council's decision to obtain the views of teachers before introducing semesters at undergraduate level, teachers in colleges are weighing the viability of such a system. Though many see hurdles in the system and an increased workload, some do agree that semesters will have more benefits for students if the university provides sufficient logistical support. S K Chawdhury, who teaches English at Shri Ram College of Commerce, explained that 'a semester system is desirable as it would help integrate DU with other places making exchange programmes with foreign universities possible'. 
The Indira Gandhi National Open University's Distance Education Programme 'Sarva Sikshya Abhiyan (DEP-SSA) will hold workshops for master trainers in communicative English from October 16 till February 18 next year. Workshops are being held at Kerala, Delhi, Hyderabad, Bhubaneshwar and Bangalore. The DEP-SSA training module has been designed for resource persons who will tutor basic teachers and trainers working at the grassroot level. 
The strategy to work hard for internal exams and score high marks has backfired for many Delhi University students. In a move meant to bring parity among colleges, the university has moderated the internal assessment marks of its students. So students in top-rung colleges like Sri Ram College of Commerce, Lady Sri Ram, Jesus and Mary College and St Stephen's have lost marks.
The IITs at Kanpur and Mumbai have been running such a course for a long time, but the response was tepid. 'The nuclear sector was confined to government set-ups such as the Department of Atomic Energy, where salaries were measly. But with the sector opening up to private participation, we expect the demand to rise,' said Professor Sanjay Dhande, director, IIT Kanpur. 
rooms without walls, with the rise in internet connectivity and the phenomena of online learning or e-Learning. Though this model has become something like a norm in the developed parts of the world, Europe and United States, countries in other parts of the world are just about making a foray into this new realm of possibilities. In this article we look at Malaysia’s tryst with e-Learning as an alternative to traditional teaching techniques at the school level
The entry of private sector has also given a huge impetus to e-Learning in Malaysian schools. Although a strong push from the Ministry of Education has been a significant element in the country’s e-Learning initiatives, the design and development of these initiatives has been carried out through a collaboration of private corporations. This has ensured that every primary and secondary schools are provided with similar infrastructure and services, thus enabling a greater sharing of the e-Learning content created by the teachers and students across Malaysia.
The Smart Utusan Education Portal has been set up by Utusan Melayu Berhad. This educational gateway attracts an average of six million visitors every month and contains teaching and learning material for all levels of school education. Within the portal, students can get access to the past year’s national examination questions; and teachers can view interesting teaching plans for mathematics and science subjects. There is also an interactive forum for visitors to share their thoughts and cyber chat, try the e-laboratory or play games. Schools can also publish their web ages.
The blueprint has announced about a new curriculum at primary school-level which would be introduced in 2010 to make it more holistic and less examination-oriented for pupils. The new curriculum will be based on six key areas which were communication, spiritual attitude and values, humanitarianism, literacy in science and technology, physical and personal development. The emphasis in Years One and Two would be on ensuring that pupils master reading, writing and arithmetic. Reasoning skills, scientific and ICT knowledge, and nurturing creativity would also be stressed. In Years Three, Four, Five and Six, the emphasis would be on acquiring more complex skills and knowledge.
Even though the government is giving priority to Broadband connectivity and PC penetration to ensure maximum reach of Internet, financial constraints and geographical locations have made it difficult for many schools to access high speed bandwidth. Hence prioritising infrastructure rollout and its upgradation is essential in aiding successful implementation of e-Learning.
