IDRC announces Open Archive, an intellectual platform for developing countries

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January 27, 2006

Canada's International Development Research Centre (IDRC) has announced plans to create an Open Archive, the first among Canadian research funding organizations. The Open Archive will provide full access over the Internet to IDRC's rich research archive.

In addition to making information more freely available, this initiative will provide IDRC-funded researchers with a much-needed outlet to publish and showcase their work. The Open Archive will help Southern researchers to engage in the international dialogue on important development issues and increase the impact of their research. Throughout its 35-year history, IDRC has believed that to bring about positive change in people's lives, knowledge should be shared. Research results and documents generated by IDRC-supported projects, IDRC recipients, and IDRC staff represent a tangible intellectual output of the Centre's mandate. The Open Archive will streamline and centralize the capture of IDRC project outputs and research documents. It will raise the visibility and facilitate the retrieval of the vast array of IDRC materials by consolidating them in a well-managed, indexed, secure, and permanent location. By creating an Open Archive, IDRC promotes transparency of its results-based research and participates in the global movement to remove economic, social, and geographic barriers to the sharing of knowledge. Canada's International Development Research Centre (IDRC) is one of the world's leading institutions in the generation and application of new knowledge to meet the challenges of international development. For more than 30 years, IDRC has worked in close collaboration with researchers from the developing world to build healthier, more equitable, and more prosperous societies.

Nationwide elibrary project rolls out

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January 27, 2006

Kapil Sibal, Union Minister for Human Resource Development, India recently, formally launched the 'National Library and Information Services Infrastructure for Scholarly Content (N-LIST)'. The N-LIST project provides access to more than 2,100 electronic journals and 51,000 electronic books to students, researchers and faculty from colleges and other beneficiary institutions through server(s) installed at the Information and Library Network (INFLIBNET) Centre.

Faculty, staff students and researches from colleges covered under section 12B of University Grants Commission (UGC) Act are eligible to access e-resources through the N-LIST project. Registration of the above mentioned colleges is required, however, on the N-LIST Website. Currently, 665 colleges are registered members. The project provides for cross-subscription to e-resources subscribed by the two Consortia, i.e. subscription to INDEST-AICTE resources for universities and UGC-INFONET resources for technical institutions.

eCurriculum in IIIT A plans for IT courses

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January 27, 2006

In an announcement, the Indian Institute of Information Technology – Allahabad (IIIT-A) mentioned that they will be developing e-contents for 18 subjects of Information Technology (IT) for all IT courses in the country. The move has been taken in accordance with the National Knowledge Process programme launched by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD).

IIIT A has been assigned with a task of training mentors and developing IT e-learning modules for institutions that provided technical training such as Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT), National Institute of Sciences, etc, by the MHRD. The MHRD had assigned IIIT-A with the task of The purpose behind the move by MHRD was too spread education about information technology in the northern regions of India. IIIT-A Director M.D. Tiwari mentioned that the ministry had released an amount of INR 75 lakhs for the project. Tiwari said that the institute was working towards content generation and connectivity with a provision for access devices for institutes and learners.

Municipality to introduce e-Education

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January 25, 2006

The Ukhahlamba District Municipality in the Eastern Cape in South Africa is to introduce electronic education (e-Education) for teachers and pupils in the municipality.

A centre has been established at Idyoki Public School in Ugie. This is in line with the e-Education White Paper that sets out government's response to a new information and communication technology environment in education. Government aims to ensure that schools are connected, that they access the Internet and communicate electronically; and that communities use and support ICT facilities in public schools. The municipality in partnership with Asante Management and Development Services as well as Kit Plant Hire have donated 16 computers, a printer, a scanner, a copier, a satellite dish, a DVD player and a data projector to the learning communities. Forty-eight educators from Idyoki School, including ABET educators as well as a representative from the community will obtain ICT training from the resource centre. Some of the modules to be introduced in their training include Introduction to Information Technology, Basic Word Processing Skills Part 1, Basic Word processing Skills Part 2, Basic Spreadsheet Skills as well as Basic Skills in Presentation.

MEXUS EDUCATION consults FRANCORP for advice on its Pan India expansion of Iken Braingym

Corporate Updates

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January 25, 2006

IKEN Braingym, the flagship brand under the aegis of which Mexus Education delivers its interactive learning centers and services, has hired the services of FRANCORP for their pan India growth plan. Mexus Education, started in 2008, is an education innovations enterprise of the Bilakhia Group. Mexus is making its first entrance ever into franchising to expand its presence across India with the help of the Francorp's global expertise in franchise management. The foundation of Mexus is a belief that learning is most effective when it is personalized, entertaining, voluntary and involves active participation by the students. It is this thought that has inspired Mexus to design innovative learning solutions and tools with an able team of over 300 professionals from premier science and management institutes in India.

In India FRANCORP is a part of Franchise India Group, which is Asia's largest integrated Franchise and Retail Solutions Company that specializes in providing innovative solutions to its global clientele. Iken Braingym, a unique and state-of-the-art learning centre developed by Mexus Education offers technology enabled and self-learning course modules for age groups 3 to 30 yrs. Course content is delivered through modern technology and a 'hands-on' methodology that includes learning with the help of films, animations, games, toys, demo kits, project work, case studies, activity based learning and many more. Iken Braingym offers learning solutions ranging from Pre-school (Brain-e-kids), Middle School Curricular based learning programs (Study Smart, Science and Math for Std. 6 to 9), Middle School extra-curricular and skill based learning programs (Futuristic Kids, Std. 6-9) and Professional Learning programs in Information Technology and Teacher Training (Fine Tune for graduate students, aspiring professionals and homemakers). All courses are uniquely built on the Iken BrainGym philosophy of multiple learning methodologies and give the learners a life long educational experience that is unique in the Indian education sector. Iken Braingym also follows a distinctive real-time performance tracking mechanism for instant results and thus much greater customer satisfaction.

Speaking on the future plans, Saurabh Saxena, Director, Mexus Education, said, 'Braingym is the next generation learning space which is a unique combination of lab, museum, workshop, classroom, hobby center and play group. Through this initiative, we take forward our philosophy of bringing back the joy in learning and to provide hands on activity based learning to the students. We intend to set up 50 Iken BrainGym centers in the current fiscal year across Tier1 and Tier2 cities. With FRANCORP's expertise in this sector, we are confident that we will be able to meet our targets and deliver quality education and educational tools to the consumers.' Commenting upon this association, Gaurav Marya, Managing Director, Francorp, said, 'The education market that our client wishes to address is estimated to be INR 1000 Crs in 2008 (in Vocational training). Mexus is committed to create a new wave in the domain of education by providing end to end solutions for content, methodology, delivery technology and assessment. These learning tools facilitate collaborative learning and self-analysis as students not just learn their lessons but begin to analyze the Whys and Hows of things. We are looking forward to help them with their franchisee model & roll-out plan for pan-India expansion program and also provide marketing support, legal documentation, & help with recruitment of franchisee. Mexus will help franchises for centre set-up, Marketing support, Recruitment & Training support and after sales & service support etc.'

Kiwi students rank high on access to ICT

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January 25, 2006

Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) report says, New Zealand secondary school students stand fifth out of 41 countries for access to Information Communications Technology. This study shows that the government's strategy to equip all young New Zealanders with skills in, and access to, ICT is achieving good results.

Every school in the country now has access to broadband and ICT equipment and more than 600 schools are involved in ICT clusters. New Zealand 15 year olds' access to ICT in home and school was the fifth highest of participating countries at nearly 100 percent. Most 15 year olds (approximately 80 percent) had home internet access in 2003, a figure that is likely to have risen since 2003. Approximately 56 percent of New Zealand 15 year olds had been using computers for more than five years. New Zealand students ranked very highly for their confidence with Internet tasks (8th) and higher-level ICT tasks such as managing databases and building web pages (6th). The government has invested $300 million in ICT in schools since 2000. This year schools will receive $50 million specifically for ICT over and above the $22 million provided as part of their operational grants.

INR 120 crore education plan to Core Projects

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January 25, 2006

An order of INR 120 has been bagged by Core Projects and Technologies from the Government of Maharashtra for deploying ICT infrastructure in 947 secondary and higher secondary schools located in Mumbai, Pune and Kolhapur regions of the state.

The five year contract commences from May 2010. It includes setting up of computer labs in secondary and higher secondary schools, setting up physical infrastructure, deploying and running school management software, provision of multimedia educational software for respective subject based on Maharashtra state curriculum and would be available in Marathi and English, computer educative programs, training five teachers from each school and training government school students in these regions.

The Mumbai region will cover North Mumbai, South Mumbai, Raigad and Thane districts. Pune region will cover Ahmednagar, Solapur and Pune districts. Kolhapur region will cover Kolhapur, Satara, Sangli, Sindhudurg and Ratnagiri districts.

Learning to earn, GEP way

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January 24, 2006

Global Education Partnership (G.E.P.), a network of educators, development professionals, business people, and visionaries, winner of the 2004/05 APC Hafkin Prize that recognises community initiatives using the Internet and other digital communication networks to access markets, skills and opportunities to derive real economic benefits, has a lot of initiatives in Africa that are relevant to India too. Computer education does not always translate into jobs. But this initiative seeks to do IT differently. Here's a snapshot of what GEP is doing in Africa.

Rajasthan joins with UN task force to enable its education systems

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January 24, 2006

Just one day after it formally launched its operations in India, the United Nations-funded Global e-Schools and Communities Initiative (GeSI) joined hands with the Indian state Rajasthan in an ambitious project to enable its school education system.

In a first-of-its-kind partnership in India, where the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the World Economic Forum (WEF) are the other two players, the State has kick-started the Rajasthan Education Initiative which is aimed at encompassing all one lakh schools and making them the focal points of ongoing schemes such as Project GRACE (Girls of Rajasthan and Computer Education); District Computer Education Centres (DCECs) in all 32 districts; departmental computerisation down to block level and EDUSAT ( satellite)-based teacher training. Between the 1991 census and the one conducted a decade later, literacy in the state had almost doubled to over 61 per cent (from 20 to 44 per cent among females and from 54 to 76 per cent among males).

Computer keyboard with Nigerian languages

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January 24, 2006

Nigeria has recorded a major achievement in Information Technology (IT), with the invention of a customised keyboard that provides the option of writing in Nigerian languages.

The equipment, which is known as Konyin keyboard, was developed in Nigeria by Lancor Technologies, with the sole aim of promoting Nigerian languages through integration into the global information super-highway. The new technology has the ability to create words in three major Nigerian languages, namely Igbo, Hausa and Yoruba. It is a facility with hardware and software that uses 63 alphanumeric keys with four shift Keys. The new technology represents a significant step in allowing languages with more than 26 alphabets to use a single keyboard layout for easy and direct access typing. Nigerian names over the years have not been spelt correctly. This way, it begins to diminish in content and application. The reason is that there has been no convenient medium to allow Nigerians using the electronic format address their names and language on a computer. Nigeria as a country is made up of between 250-400 native languages.

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