Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen has asked for accountability in delivery of elementary education and public healthcare services. While speaking in the discussion on 'Right to Education
ADB helps improve education in Uzbekistan
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will grant a US$ 30 million loan to improve education in rural areas of Uzbekistan. ADB is providing grant for laboratories equipment and other teaching and learning materials.
In Uzbekistan, 99 percent children are school going children. However, there are still major challenges to improve the quality of the education to meet international standards. The Government of Uzbekistan has launched a major programme in order to upgrade the education system by 2009. About 80 percent of Uzbekistan's 9,773 schools are in rural and remote areas. Under the new project, rural schools would be upgraded under the Government's program. These schools would be equipped with laboratories and provided with teaching and learning materials. More than 6,70,000 students and 63,000 teachers will benefit in the three project regions including Tashkent oblast, Surkhandarya and Kashkadarya.
ADB gives grant to Samoa for education ICT programme
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is extending a 5.9 million US dollar grant to support the Independetn state of Samoa's increasing use of information and communication technology in education.
The SchoolNet and Community Access Project will help develop the government, teachers and students from government and mission secondary schools to deliver education using ICT. It's expected to improve the quality of teaching and learning in secondary schools, create better access to education through ICT and strengthen education management and coordination. The total project cost is estimated at 6.9 million dollars, with the ADB providing the grant from its Asian Development Fund. The remaining one million will be funded by the government.
ISRO chief: Take up vocational programmes on a national scale
G. Madhavan Nair chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) stated that the vocational distance learning programmes, which uses Village Resource Centres (VRCs) as a hub should be taken up on a national scale.
ISRO has partnered with Sathyabama University to bring a single-window mechanisms to provide services ranging across tele-education, e-Governance and telemedicine. In its first batch, around 1200 students attended the ISRO supported satellite based distance education programme from 15 VRCs in various districts of the state. The university has established the VRCs with ISRO to provide technological inputs to students. In its next level programme, ISRO will provide telemedicine and e-Governance services through VRCs. E-Governance service through VRCs will help people to access a host of services, from paying their electrical bills to getting their certificates.
Nigeria combats HIV/AIDS through mobile phones
One World UK has launched an e-learning based tool based on the Nigerian Family Life and HIV/AIDS Education (FLHE) school curriculum, called 'Learning about Living' in collaboration with Education as a Vaccine against AIDS (EVA).
The programme, Learning about Living is also supported by MTN Foundation and National Agency for AIDS Control (NACA). The programme aims to use ICT to educate young people on issues like sexual health, prevent HIV/AIDS and maternal mortality and gender violence. In the second phase, the programme aims to improve information on sex education and other issues. The Learning about Living programme has two information services: MyQuestion and 'MyAnswer'. MyQuestion allows young people to ask questions through text messages, online or using a telephone line. While the second service, My Answer is competition where young people have the opportunity of winning prizes by answering a monthly question. MyAnswer aims to engage and motivate young people to learn and reflect on various issues, and it will produce ten winners picked each month amongst the accurate entries to win airtime.
Indonesia, UNICEF ink $125 mn deal on child projects
Indonesia has signed a new agreement with the UN children's agency UNICEF to improve the living standards of children throughout the archipelago.
The 125 million dollar project will improve the mother and child health and education in 2008. In 2008, the project will promote proper sanitation for children. The project will cover 130 new schools in Indonesia's Aceh province, the area worst hit by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. UNICEF has also signed an agreement with government for promoting HIV/AIDS education, especially in the eastern Papua region, where the disease is most widespread.
British defense firm, Costain finalise second school contract with the govt.
The UK based defense and support service firm VT Group has finalised its second contract after completing negotiations with the London Borough of Lewisham.
Under an initial contract, worth more than
Academic, industry leaders join hands to set up Indo-UK education centre
The India-UK Advanced Technology Centre (IU-ATC), a virtual research and innovation centre comprising 22 industry and academic partners, has been launched recently to drive collaborative research programmes and technology transfer between the two countries.
The IU-ATC will conduct research on current and next generation fixed and wireless communications, with the aim of becoming a global centre of excellence for next generation networks (NGN) and information and communication technologies (ICT) research. The IU-ATC, which has British Telecom (BT) as its prime industry partner, will facilitate industry collaboration with academic research and government as part of an initial five-year research and development plan. It has already secured over $3 million to establish the first-ever India-UK virtual graduate research school, which will support collaborative PhD and post-doctorate projects and exchange visits within the IU-ATC. Currently, there are 22 consortium partners bringing a diversity of skills. The Indian partners include – IIT-Madras, IIT-Bangalore, IIT-Delhi, IIT-Mumbai, Infosys Technologies Ltd, BT India, Wipro Technologies and Sasken Communications. While the UK academic and industrial partners include – University of Ulster, BT, University College London, University of St Andrews Scotland, Queen Mary University of London, University of Southampton, University of Cambridge, Intergence Systems, UK. This consortium is aimed to ensure the rapid transfer of ideas and technology with the aim of creating breakthrough NGN and ICT research.
Indian varsity to test e-Learning
Anna University in India will put to test its e-learning tool that is being developed on open software platform.
The e-learning tool that would facilitate video-streaming of expert lectures from the university to wide audiences in 50 affiliated colleges will be tested with the existing 2 MBPS bandwidth connectivity to link up with Satyam Computers at Hyderabad, which would sponsor candidates for study of M.S. Software Engineering from there. Along with its affiliated colleges, the university is exploring possibilities to shift to 8 MBPS connectivity at its BIT campus at the earliest to distributed bandwidth for administrative and academic purposes through its centralised server. Through putting to operation the e-learning tool via internet, the university would be able to go ahead with its plan of extending its post-graduate programmes to aspiring employees in the corporate sector as well. The PG programmes were initiated at the start of this academic year for enhancing the qualification of the faculty in affiliated colleges. Teachers in Computer Science and Engineering department are being facilitated to complete their post-graduation by fulfilling 67 to 70 credits under Modular-Based Credit Banking Scheme.
Lancaster University awards doctorate to Infosys Chairman Narayana Murthy
Infosys Chairman Narayana Murthy has been conferred with an honorary Doctorate degree by Lancaster University in recognition of his lasting contribution to the fields of business and business education.
The honorary degree – a Doctor of Science – was conferred on him by the Chancellor of the University, Sir Chris Bonington. Murthy founded Infosys in 1981 along with six other software professionals and served as its CEO for 21 years before handing over the reins of the company to co-founder Nandan Nilekani in 2002. He then served as Executive Chairman of the Board and Chief Mentor from 2002 to 2006. Murthy designed and implemented the Global Delivery Model, which has become the foundation for the success of IT services outsourcing from India.
