Minority schools form association in Delhi

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August 2, 2006

In an effort to ensure financial and administrative autonomy of minority schools in the city, around 25 such schools on Wednesday announced the launch of an association, The Forum of Minority Schools' (TFMS). The forum will also act as a common platform, facilitating exchange of human resources, expertise, faculties and infrastructure among minority institutions. V K Williams, president, TFMS, said that the forum would try to introduce CBSE curriculum in the Muslim minority schools. The forum was formally inaugurated by Valson Thampu, principal, St Stephen's College. Vineet Joshi, acting chairman of CBSE was also present on the occasion. Terming it a timely initiative, Thampu said, 'All stakeholders of minority education should get together to make the journey effective. It's a timely move as the attitude of the government and bureaucracy towards minority education has been lackadaisical so far.'

Williams, the principal Mount Carmal School, Anand Niketan, said that although the problems faced by the public schools and minority institutions are similar, minority institutions couldn't be clubbed with the public schools. On a separate forum, he said, 'There are primarily three reasons. The Indian Constitution under Article 30 gives the minority community the autonomy to establish and administer minority institutions, a norm which has been violated. Second, we are becoming synonymous with public schools in a negative way and so we want to set the record straight that we are minority schools with missionary commitments and finally, in the name of public schools, certain steps are taken against our constitutional autonomy like attempt to regulate our fees, attempt to put government representatives in our management, usurping our rights to take disciplinary actions against erring employees, levying on us commercial rates of electricity, water and property tax, among others.'

ICT enabled distance education

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digitalLEARNING Network

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August 2, 2006

Professor Anil D Sahasrabudhe, Director, College of Engineering, Pune, presented a case study on ICT enabled interactive distance education. College of Engineering, Pune, has recently introduced interactive distance education using ICT services. The factors that motivated were exponential increase in the number of engineering colleges, shortage of faculty in premier institutes, acute shortage of good faculty, outdated curricula in Universities, poor teaching-learning processes, faculty qualifications, intake of good quality students and employability. Sahasrabudhe informed how the faculty was enable with the use of multimedia and IT tools in classrooms . They were granted permission to present papers in National and International Conferences and short term courses for faculty were introduced.

Technology can help educational institutes in many ways. One should go for Internet bandwidth with a campus wide network, fiber and Wi-Fi, data center with servers and PCs as well as introduce a digital library with E-books and E-journals. The most important thing is that, with the help of IT, institutes can go for online live interactive classes through videoconferencing. However there is no denying the fact that there are numerous challenges faced in terms of infrastructure cost, mindset of students and teachers from real versus virtual remote class, inferiority complex amongst remote students, inexperience of teaching in remote mode, clarity of video and audio, attention span of students, assumed background of students, assignments, tutorials, examinations and evaluations said Sahasrabudhe

Nevertheless, they overcame those challenges by providing students with good quality classroom, ambiance, acoustics, minimum of exclusive 2 Mbps connectivity, Polycom Videoconferencing equipment at both ends (Telepresence : Cisco, Tandberg), good sound system, faculty coordinator at the remote location and background material especially for Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics. Sahasrabudhe stressed that the model which they have implicated is highly replicable & scalable. There can be one-to-many (may be up to five virtual classes). The use of ICT can help reduce cost for carrying out lab experiments remotely on expensive equipment.

15, 000 Mizoram children deprived of of schooling

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digitalLEARNING Network

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August 2, 2006

About 15,000 children in Mizoram, aged six to fourteen, are deprived of schooling even though the northeastern state is India's second most literate after Kerala, an official report said. 'After finding that around 15,000 children, mostly tribals, are deprived of formal education, the state's mission of Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (SSA) sent education volunteers as mobile teachers in the interior villages,' a report of the Mizoram education department said. The mobile teachers would persuade the children and their parents to enrol themselves in government schools.

According to the report, the children deprived of education were mainly concentrated in Lunglei, Lawngtlai and Saiha districts of southern Mizoram and Mamit district in the east adjacent to Tripura. Of the 15,000 illiterate children, 40 % were school dropouts and the remaining had never been enrolled in schools. In Mizoram, 88.80 % of the 900,000 people are literate. In the mountainous state of Mizoram, education was first initiated and popularised by the British. Missionaries were responsible for the growth and institutionalisation of education in the state, bordering Myanmar and Bangladesh. The first educational institution in Mizoram was initiated by missionaries in the Aizawl region in 1897. Later, three more government primary schools opened in Aizawl in 1898.

Directorate of Education notifies private schools to convene PTA before fee hike

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August 1, 2006

Directorate of Education (DoE) notification issued on Wednesday has made it compulsory for private schools to convene a meeting of the general body of the Parent-Teachers' Association (PTA) before implementing any fee hike. The direction comes after weeks of protests by parents against increase in fees in Delhi's private schools. All private schools, including those who claim to hold PTA meetings on the issue, are required to submit a copy of the PTA resolution to the Directorate within 30 days. In an advertisement issued today, the Directorate has reiterated that all schools that have not yet convened a PTA meeting must do so within the stipulated time to be able to increase fees. Any school that fails to hold the meeting within that period must also roll back the fee hike till such time as the meeting is convened, the DoE stated.

Delhi Education Secretary Rina Ray clarified that the 'general body of PTA' implies not just the PTA's executive council but the entire body of teachers and parents. She said, 'The notification issued in February also said that the PTA must be consulted before any increase in fees but we found that many schools called only a small number of parents sympathetic to the management. Only the PTA executive body is not acceptable to us.' Ashok Aggarwal, president of All India Parents' Association, said, 'Most schools don't even have a proper PTA. They simply involve a few parents in the management instead of involving the entire body.'

Fairs and Exhibitions launches 2nd Global Education Forum

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August 1, 2006

GESS 2009 will feature more than 200 exhibitors from over 20 countries showcasing a range of educational supplies and solutions that range from information technology and multimedia learning aids through to classroom and sporting equipment and teaching aids for special needs education. Over 4000 education professionals are expected to visit the exhibition and the accompanying Forum. For suppliers to the education sector, GESS has proven an ideal opportunity to launch products into the Middle East market. Highlights of the exhibition floor for visiting education professionals will include Microsoft who will be showing the possibilities presented by their Live@edu product- a suite of applications that helps students to collaborate both on and off campus. Al Mazroui will be showing Cyber Anatomy 3D that produces accurate clinical-level anatomical models within 1 mm of the naked eye and Eductech will run workshops demonstrating the SPARK science learning system and online learning environment.

Sue Rothwell, Group Event Director, Fairs & Exhibitions, said, 'Examination of the GESS exhibitor list shows not only a selection of highly successful locally based businesses that specialise in the sector but also businesses from Europe, the Americas and Asia who are eager to be involved in the development that is continuing to occur in this sector.' 'This year we have experienced exhibitor growth of 20% and the number of countries represented on the exhibition floor has doubled. The exhibition floor space this year is 55% bigger than last year and with the support of the Ministry of Education we will welcome Ministerial delegations from Bahrain, Qatar, KSA, Yemen and Oman,' she added. In addition to the patronage of H.H Sheikh Mohammed and the UAE Ministry of Education, GESS and GEF enjoy a high level of support from organisations including the Emirates Foundation, BESA (British Educational Suppliers Association), Worlddidac, Didacta, UK Trade & Investment, Edutech and Al Mazroui.

Vets to be trained with virtual operations

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July 31, 2006

Prospective vets no longer need to enter a veterinary surgery for clinical training – even before stepping into the operation theatre, veterinary students can now get a feel of the instruments, sterilisation techniques and patient preparation. All this has been made possible by an interactive device – the 'Virtual Veterinary Surgery' (VVS) – designed by Glenn Edwards, associate professor and his colleagues at the faculty of veterinary science of Melbourne University and the Educational Technology Services. 'What we have created is a virtual operating theatre, an interactive programme for teaching the principles of surgery,' said Edwards. If successful, the model is likely to be replicated elsewhere.

The VVS is designed to be integrated with the undergraduate veterinary science course for second year students. A total of 120 students each year enter the programme and must pass the related assessment tasks before they are permitted into the operating theatre for clinical training. After logging on via the learning management system, students find themselves gazing into a panoramic view of a fully equipped operating theatre, complete with the sounds of a ventilation machine. By using the menu or clicking on the contents of the operating room – such as the surgeon, a piece of equipment or the canine patient – students are taken into the related study unit. These study units cover areas such as surgical etiquette and how the operating team works together, equipment and patient preparation and post-operative care, said a Melbourne release. The programme's visuals have been recorded mainly from real cases at the University's Veterinary Clinic and Hospital over the past two years. The site design was supported by a project grant from the Coursework Design and Development Programme from the University. The educational content was produced in assistance with the Educational Technology Services, led by David Adam.

Kunene teachers celebrate Edu-Sector Health Day

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July 31, 2006

Teachers from all corners of the Kunene Region gathered in Khorixas last week Friday to celebrate the Edu-Sector Health Day. More than 3 000 teachers and employees of the education sector in the Kunene Region gathered at Khorixas last week Friday to celebrate the Edu-Sector Health Day. The Edu-Sector Health Day is an initiative by the Ministry of Education and its partners aimed at creating an urgent sense of awareness amongst education sector employees. The day also aims to expose and provide employees and their families with HIV and AIDS prevention methods and to provide them with an opportunity to know their status by providing free voluntary counseling and testing. Speaking at the occasion, Minister of Education Nangolo Mbumba said the education sector, which is the single largest employer with over 40 000 employees, has an immense responsibility to ensure that the preservation of its human capital national and international development targets set by the United Nations General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) and the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) are reached.

He said that given the current national prevalence rate of 17.2 %, it is important for the education sector to invest in HIV prevention, care, support and impact mitigation programmes to address the socio-economic impacts currently being felt through reduced service delivery escalated by increased rate of absenteeism and funeral attendance and other forms of compassionate leave. The USAID country director, Greg Gottlieb, in a speech read on his behalf by Dalene van der Westhuizen of USAID, said USAID, PEPFAR and the Academy for Educational Development (AED) are proud to support initiatives which aim to prevent new infections and provide relief for current illnesses. He added that since the Ministry of Education employs the largest percentage of the public sector employees, they have the potential to reach many people in all regions.

Sri Lanka to trains youth with ADB aid

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July 31, 2006

Ministry of Education in Sri Lanka will provide workforce readiness training to thousands of Sri Lankan youth from the funding received from the Asian Development Bank. The Accelerated Skills Acquisition Program (ASAP), will provide the training using a specialized curriculum that targets unemployed youth between the ages of 15 – 25. High unemployment rates for youth who do not enter university continue to be a national concern in Sri Lanka.

ASAP's close collaboration with the private sector has ensured that the training curricula teaches the skills youth need most to be successful in the workplace. This will support the acquisition of post-secondary career-oriented soft skills that are essential for finding gainful employment, especially in the emerging ICT and service sectors of the Sri Lankan economy.

Admission to law commences at IP University

Higher Education

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July 31, 2006

Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University (GGSIPU) has announced admissions to its law programme for academic year commencing this year. The University has invited applications for B.A. LL.B (H), BBA LL.B (H) and LL.M. Programme. Admissions to the above mentioned courses will be given on the basis of entrance test conducted by the university on June 9.

Application form and brochure can be obtained from branches of Punjab & Sind Bank on payment of INR 800. Application can also be submitted online through university's website http://ipu.admissionhelp.com . Last date of submission of form is April 21.

100 acre campus to be setup for nuclear professionals

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July 28, 2006

A Mumbai-based engineering training and consulting company, is the only company in the private domain that offers training in nuclear power sector. The company plans to set up a 100-acre campus aiming to create a talent pool of nuclear professionals. The campus will cater to the training requirements of personnel from private companies in nuclear power and other allied areas. Makarand Rajadhyaksha, Managing Director of the company told Business Line that today expertise and knowledge of nuclear sector is only available with Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) and its subsidiary organisation. Private sector has no access to the knowledge and training offered there. On the other hand, there would be huge requirement of trained manpower once the sector is opened up for private investment. Therefore, we want to set up a campus, he said.

Rajadhyaksha said that in the coming months a listed company is likely to take a stake in PM Dimensions given the scope of growth. However, PM Dimensions is not waiting for the campus to take off. It has already devised a program with 30 modules, which will provide training to about 1200 to 1500 professional in subjects ranging from Nuclear Reactor Theory and Types of Reactors to Decommissioning of Nuclear Power Plant. Starting from July, the program will be offered in Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Hyderabad. Training will be imparted by senior industry professionals who earlier led various departments in Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL), Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) and other organisations associated with DAE. Without revealing the development cost of the program, Rajadhyaksha said that the company has invested six man hour months in developing it. A participant can opt for any modules according to his requirements.'Today Indian companies are trying to get a feel of the nuclear power market and looking for opportunities; they are considering to partner with international companies. However, Indian companies in order to get into partnership discussion need basic understanding of the field and PM dimensions is providing that knowledge,' saidr Rajadhyaksha.

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