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MBD launches online tutorial service for Indian students

Publishing house MBD has launched online tutorial guidelines for schoolchildren as well as for those preparing are engineering and medical entrance examinations in India.

Initially, the company has invested around INR 20 million to offer three months to two years courses for standard 10 and 12. The company has launched this service for the Central Board of Secondary Education and the AIEEE (engineering entrance) and the AIPMT (medical entrance) aspirants. The company has tied up with the Internet service provider, Sify, so that students can study at any Sify I-Ways Internet kiosk at no extra cost. The tutorial will come at Rs 150 per month per subject.

m-Learning initiatives in India

Mumbai-based Enable Mobile Technologies is planning to offer coaching for engineering and medical college entrance exams, specific vocational training and language training through mobile phones.

The company has partnered with coaching institute IMS to launch this service. The service will allow telecoms operator to enable users to prepare for MBA entrance exams. The service, 'the Prep Guide', is a multi application service tailor-made to suit content. User would be able to receive words for practice through SMS or access them through WAP. But for mock interviews, the delivery format will be different like a voice-based application or audio-cum-video interaction-via-mobile and a dedicated portal that allows a group of six-seven members to log on and communicate in real time. The company is working on technology to facilitate group discussions and counseling via mobile phones.

Indian HRD Ministry launches online admission project

The Indian Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry has launched online Admission 2007 Project (Ni-On) of National Institute of Open Learning for Indian students.

The National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) has initiated Online Admissions under its NIOS Online (Ni-On) Project from this year onwards. This unique facility will facilitate the learners in directly accessing NIOS. Under Ni-On Project, NIOS has tailor-made '3' Streams of Online admissions for meeting the requirements of different groups of its potential learners. In Stream 1, all the learners can access NIOS directly Online through its website (www.nos.org) for the purpose of seeking admission. Stream-2 has been designed to save one-year of all those who have been unsuccessful in CBSE/ ICSE/Other recognized State Education Boards. These learners can seek Online Admissions in the Stream '2' and also appear in the Public Examinations of October-November 2007, whose results will be declared by December 2007 itself. Stream-3 of Online Admissions also caters to the learners covered by Stream '2' but allows them an additional advantage of appearing in On Demand Examination (ODE) at Secondary-level only based on his or her state of academic preparation. Last two Streams have been designed to provide “Safety Net” to all such unsuccessful learners of the Formal School System.

Madhya Pradesh (India) to increase enrollment in schools

Efforts are being made by the Madhya Pradesh Government in order to ensure maximum enrollment of children in schools with the reopening of schools for the new academic year.

The Madhya Pradesh Government's Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan is aimed at improving the quality of education in schools through free distribution of textbooks for all children, provision of school uniforms to girl students and scholarships to children belonging to the disadvantaged and deprived sections, training of parent-teacher associations (PTAs) and improvement in the existing school infrastructure and by providing improved drinking water and toilet facilities. In order to meet the larger objectives of primary education, a quality education initiative is presently being implemented in Madhya Pradesh. In Jhabua, UNICEF supports quality education in two clusters of 10 to 15 schools in each block in partnership with the district administration and Rajya Shiksha Kendra. Besides advocating the need for quality education, UNICEF has also provided school furniture and a mathematics kit, which includes self-learning material, for schools in this district. There is need to invest more on quality education and in efforts to retain the children of migrating parents in schools

Tele-conferencing training programme for teachers

The Goa Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education (GBSHSE) has initiated the first tele-conferencing training programmes for school teachers in collaboration with the NCERT.

The tele-conferencing programme will be worked out for the GBSHSE in co-ordination between the Goa University which has the equipment and the Educational Satellite System of the NCERT, New Delhi. This facility will provide an opportunity for teachers in Goa to interact with resource persons from the NCERT.

The said facility is proposed to cater to teachers of Std II, IV, VII, X & XII covering all subjects. The Goa Board has requested the NCERT to extend such a facility to Goa and the State is one of the many identified for the programme from July 9 to August 21, 2007.

Jamia Milia University would be providing variety of courses

With a variety of courses, both conventional and non-conventional, Jamia Milia Islamia is providing a suitable platform to look for desirable courses and employment opportunities.
 
This season, the popular social science subjects offered are economics, sociology, psychology, social welfare, public administration. B-Tech, BA, LLB and bio-tech are equally in demand. The journalism course offered by Jamia is quite famous. Jamia has introduced twenty new courses in the current season. It is expecting 6270 admissions in the year 2007 for various courses. The prospectus for admission in Jamia is available online. Among the new courses, physiotherapy is expected to top the charts because of its popularity and increasing demand. With a total capacity of 11,000 students, Jamia provides a wide range of opportunities both in terms of quality and quantity education. Jamia Millia Islamia has always been India's best platform for aspiring professionals and as every year our focus would be on quality education. One of the reasons behind popularity of the university can be its locality, as the area provides a fabulous environment for students to learn and enhance their skills and knowledge.

ADB is supporting Philippines in combating spread of HIV/ AIDS

Asian Development Bank (ADB) will sponsor a programme to combat the spread of HIV/AIDS by raising awareness among high-risk groups in the Philippines in partnership with the government's Department of Health, members of the private sector and non-government organizations.

Strengthening Country Response to HIV/AIDS among High-Risk Groups is a subproject of ADB's Regional Technical Assistance for Fighting HIV/AIDS in Asia and the Pacific project. The subproject aims to improve the effectiveness of the national and local response to the epidemic among groups considered high-risk, such as intravenous drug users and overseas  There were around 60 workshop participants who shared their experiences, lessons learned and challenges in working with these high-risk groups. ADB Philippines Country Director Thomas Crouch and Health Undersecretary Ethelyn P. Nieto attended the workshop. The subproject has two components. The first involves the development of strategies to reduce harm caused by the disease and to test those strategies. The second involves building up capacity for HIV prevention and care for overseas Filipino workers, especially seafarers. The Department of Health has conceded that it cannot do the job of combating the spread of HIV/AIDS alone and recognizes the need to collaborate with other government agencies, international organizations, non-government organizations, civil society, and co-members in the Philippine National AIDS Council. The ability to reach out and assist overseas Filipino workers, on the other hand, is hampered by inadequate referral systems and limited access to HIV services, such as voluntary counseling and treatment. The ADB assistance will be delivered through a team of consultants fielded by Pacific Rim Innovation and Management Exponents, Inc. (PRIMEX) along with two local non-government organizations, Action for Health Initiatives, Inc. and the Remedios AIDS Foundation.

AR Lifelong Learning Project

The Lifelong Learning and Training Project in Argentina aims at supporting the Government of Argentina to consolidate, strengthen, and increase the coverage of a lifelong learning and competency-based training system for disadvantaged adults 18 years or older with the objectives for those who participate of: (i) enhancing employability and (ii) strengthening career ladder opportunities.

The project has several components whose primary focus is to expand and strengthen competency-based training and certification. This will achieved by establishing in 30 economic sectors, competency-based training and certification systems, through development, validation and registration of occupational norms; training and certification of evaluators; and ensuring the functioning o f qualified third-party assessment centers and certification organizations; aligning the supply of training with the competency-based approach and strengthen professional training institutes; and training, assessing and certifying workers. Another component supported by the project is to develop the workforce skills of disadvantaged workers, this contains the following key elements: making qualifications more transparent and portable through the processes of setting standards by employers and workers, and evaluating and certifying competencies; moving non-formal training to a modular, competency-based, standards-driven system in order to link better training offered and market demand; promoting quality, flexibility, and cost-effectiveness among trainers, trainees and workers through testing, certification and accreditation; and offer “second chances” so that youth and adults can recover from bad starts in learning.

UNICEF condemns attacks on schoolchildren in conflict areas

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has condemned continuing attacks on schoolchildren and educational facilities in conflict zones around the world, particularly from Asia, the Middle East and Africa.

In recent weeks, at a girls' school in Afghanistan, two schoolgirls were killed, and another three students and a teacher were injured, while in Gaza, one student traveling to national college entrance exams was killed, and in a separate incident another was injured, in crossfire. The UNICEF Executive Director has thus condemned the attacks on schoolchildren. It is said that children have the right to a safe learning environment at all times, even under the most difficult of circumstances.

ICT project for schools in Malaysia

Approximately, fifty nine primary schools and around fifty seven schools in Perak have been selected to take part in ICT programme to improve academic achievement in Science and Mathematics subjects across the country.

The Education, Higher Education, Science and Technology Committee has launched the programme. In the first phase of the programme, ICT project includes sponsorship of over 150,000 books equipped with e-Tutor software, eMaz and eScz to all students and teachers in the selected schools. While in the second phase, the project involves UPSR, PMR and SPM workshops for students preparing for the examinations this year. The Perak Government has allocated RM100mil to enhance ICT development over five years.

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