Thursday, March 12, 2026
Facebook Instagram Linkedin Twitter Youtube
Home Blog Page 1729

Schools in US close as swine flu spreads

By
digitalLEARNING Network
-

More than 400 schools in the US have been closed as the swine flu virus spread to 19 states, but President Barack Obama voiced hope the deadly disease will run its course 'like ordinary flus.' Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said confirmed cases have risen from 109 on Thursday to 141 on Friday with the flu now reported in 19 states, up from 11. Separately, a few states reported slightly higher numbers. The Education Department said that 433 schools had closed, affecting 245,000 children in 17 states. That was about 100 more schools reported closed than reported on Thursday. Meanwhile, United Airlines and Continental Airlines Inc. will temporarily cut flights to Mexico in response to lower demand amid swine flu fears. 'I am optimistic that we're going to be able to manage this effectively,' Obama told reporters as he received an update from his cabinet on the federal response to the health emergency.

At the same time, he emphasised that the federal government is preparing as if the worst is still to come so that it won't be caught flat-footed. The most recent onset of illness was Tuesday, CDC said, indicating a continuing spread, though no faster than the rate of the regular winter flu. 'We think the cases do continue to occur,' CDC's Anne Schuchat was cited as saying by the Wall Street Journal.But CDC also said the new swine flu virus lacks genes that made the 1918 pandemic strain so deadly. Obama said it wasn't clear whether the flu would be more severe than others before it, and he said the swine flu is a cause for special concern because it is a new strain and people have not developed an immunity to it. Government agencies are preparing in case the flu comes back in a more virulent form during the traditional flu season, the president said, talking of an overarching effort to help schools and businesses while also responding to pleas for help from other countries. The Journal cited a US health official as saying the virus lacks genes that made the 1918 pandemic strain so deadly. The CDC said the new virus is 'a very unusual' four-way combination of human genes and genes from swine viruses found in North America, Asia and Europe.

Public Health University at Delhi

By
digitalLEARNING Network
-

The national capital will have public health university and an Indian Institute of Public Health (IIPH) to provide a trained health workforce, Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit said after donating 51 acres of land for the two institutes on Friday. The institutes will be built by the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI), a public-private partnership between the central government, the Delhi government and private players – which is the brainchild of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The university, to come up in southwest Delhi, will be a constituent unit of the network of institutes being established by the PHFI. This campus will be named 'Swasthya Niketan', and the university will link several institutes of public health which the foundation proposes to establish in various regions of India.

First computer technology research institute at New Zealand: Key to new innovations

By
digitalLEARNING Network
-

The NZ$20 million dollar ICT Innovation Institute, otherwise known as NZI3, recently opened at Canterbury University and it's hoped it will help turn great ideas into commercial success stories. The ICT Innovation Institute will house engineers and scientists who invent radical computer technology used in everything from supermarket computers, to military hardware. Centre director, Darin Graham, says that the ICT Centre is designed to bridge the gap between business and the ivory tower of academia. 'This is going to be a very sexy place, it's certainly not geeky,' said Graham. 'The entire space is all open concept. It's not like a typical university environment where everyone's in their cloistered little offices and hiding away.' Business stumped up NZ$10 million in funding, with the Government matching this. And Prime Minister John Key says it will have benefits for the whole country.

New Zealand company Tait Electronics is one of the founding companies backing the institute and is keen to see academics' ideas turned into a commercial reality. 'Innovation without a commercial imperative is effectively just a hobby,' said Tait Electronics Managing Director, Michael Chick. One of the ideas that's really taking off is PhD student John Stowers' aerial mapping project, Quadrota. It has huge commercial potential and he says working in the NZI3 centre alongside researchers from the likes of IBM and Hewlett Packard will help speed up its development. Stowers is just one of the talented students who can flourish in the new environment NZI3 presents.

Major Educational Reforms

By
digitalLEARNING Network
-

In a economic survey it was noted that if big-ticket reforms were promised then there would be a paradigm shift in the education sector. The survey also talks of streamlining admission procedures to IITs and IIMs, without compromising on quality. Most of the new reforms outlined are already part of the HRD ministry's 100-day agenda. Instead of complete government control, the survey talks of rating educational institutions and all education service providers, both private and public. It explained that the government's higher education funds should be focused on promoting scientific and technical education and encouraging research and development in all subjects.

Also, for the first time there has been mention of a clear profile of the players who can enter the education sector. Their range varies from non-profit registered societies to publicly listed education companies in all fields of education, subject to the regulatory framework which ensures quality and reasonable pricing. The survey mentions that there is a need to increase the number of institutions through private players while ensuring they are professionally regulated so that their curriculum and degrees are internationally accepted. At the same time, the survey stresses the welfare side of the state by making it clear that education societies acquiring land at concessional rates or with other assistance from the government should pass on the benefits to the students. The survey also talks of streamlining the admission procedure to institutes of higher learning like IITs/IIMs, without compromising the quality. For the first time, Right to Education has also found a prominent place in the survey with government stressing the need for legislation to give effect to the 86th Constitutional Amendment.

Professor of Economics awarded with Leontief

By
digitalLEARNING Network
-

The Leontief Award 2009 has been conferred on Bina Agarwal, Professor of Economics at the Institute of Economic Growth. The award has been instituted in honour of Nobel laureate Wassily Leontief, given by the Global Development and Environment Institute at Tufts University, US. The Leontief Award is conferred to recognize outstanding contribution to economic theory that addresses contemporary realities and supports just and sustainable societies. The presentation ceremony will be held later this year. Distinguished winners of the award in previous years include John K. Galbraith, Amartya Sen, Paul Streeten, Herman Daly, Dani Rodrik and Robert Wade. Agarwal has done ground-breaking theoretical and empirical work in the fields of agriculture, women's land and property rights, environment and development.

31 students chosen for Science Camp

By
digitalLEARNING Network
-

Selected high school students from 31 science high schools, mostly from Metro Manila, are undergoing an intensive nine-day training camp in science, mathematics and engineering (SME), which the Department of Science and Technology (DoST) launched Monday at the University of the Philippines (UP)

School equipment costs annoy Teachers

By
digitalLEARNING Network
-

Lancashire County Council has come under fire over the cost of kitting out classrooms under the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) scheme. At a meeting last month, head teachers told councillors they could source the same essential items – including desks, chairs and laptops – for a fraction of the cost of buying them though the BSF contract. Under the terms of the deal, schools are paying as much as

Half of Indian students find it difficult to cross Secondary level

By
digitalLEARNING Network
-

At least 48 of every 100 students in India pursuing secondary education never go beyond that level, the World Bank said on Tuesday, pointing out that the country was doing worse than Vietnam and Bangladesh in enrolling students in secondary education. 'Thirty seven percent students fail before the final examination and 11 % drop out during the period (class 9-12),' said the study released by World Bank. It said with 'larger numbers of India's children now finishing primary school, the demand for secondary schooling – Grades 9 to 12 – is growing. Over the next decade, the number of secondary school students is expected to increase from 40 to 60 million'.

The challenge now for the government is to dramatically improve access, enrolment and quality in secondary education, simultaneously. The bank said that in India, the maximum job growth in recent years has taken place in the skilled services and manufacturing sectors. The country, therefore, needs to provide the 12 million young people who join the labour force every year with the necessary knowledge, skills, attitudes and experiences to enable them to access these better-paying jobs. The World Bank said that India, however, does not compare favourably with its global competitors in terms of the overall educational attainments of its people. It said 40 million children were enrolled in secondary schools in 2008. The majority of them were boys, children from the urban areas, and those who belonged to the wealthier segments of the population. Enrolment varies greatly between states, from 92 % in Kerala, 44 % in Tamil Nadu, 22 % in Bihar to four percent in Jharkhand.

Goa govt scheme has channel up in arms

By
digitalLEARNING Network
-

The Cyberage PCs continue to be a bone of contention for the Goa IT Channel Association and the government in the state. The state government in India has decided to continue with the scheme and there is a requirement for about 22,000 PCs to be supplied to the high school students in Goa under it.

The Cyberage PC is a government of Goa initiative, which began as an attempt to take computers to schools in Goa. Under this scheme, high school students are to get a PC virtually free, paying a nominal sum of Rs 1,000. The PCs are supplied through the IT channel to the principals of the various schools who then pass it on to their students. But Computer professionals in the state have questioned the scheme and have asked whether it would not make more sense to hand out PCs to schools, to be used collectively. There are other questions on whether the computers have been delivered as promised, and on schedule.

Also concerns have been expressed as to how one can ensure that the students are not taking the computers merely because they're cheap. Although most people agree that taking computers to schools in Goa is a good example, they have begun to wonder whether a bad implementation of the same would mean a dream gone sour. According to the industry people in the state, Cyberage PC scheme has caused a considerable degree of loss to the home IT market. Since there is no ceiling on how many students can avail of this PC, there is a chance that more than one student in one family gets to avail a PC at Rs 1,000. If one home can get more than one PC for thousand rupees, they can always utilize it for some other business purpose. Some say, due to the Cyberage PC scheme, the home market in Goa is gone. The renewal of the scheme means a further deterioration in the situation. The biggest backlash, is that students who buy the PCs at Rs 1,000 are selling them off at the same or at half the rate to corporates who are likely to gain big time in terms of getting new PCs virtually free of cost. In addition, the government has not indicated that the billing for these PCs must be done within Goa. This means that outside vendors can actually bill and supply the PCs directly to the customer, thereby bypassing the VAT or any other state sales tax, thus causing a revenue dip for the sate government as well.

Institute of Management Technology Ghaziabad Hosts Erasmus Mundus External Cooperation Window Inaugural Summit

By
digitalLEARNING Network
-

Institute of Management Technology (IMT) Ghaziabad has recently become one of the signatories to the Erasmus Mundus External Cooperation Window (EMECW). This gives an impetus to research, faculty and student mobility activities between IMT Ghaziabad and premier business schools of Europe in Lot 11 of EMECW. IMT Ghaziabad has had the honor to become signatory to the Erasmus Mundus External Cooperation Window, among the first in Indian Business Schools and also got the honour of hosting the Inaugural EMCW summit in collaboration with Vrije Universitiet Brussels (VUB). Erasmus Mundus is the international counterpart of the Erasmus programme, which is named after the Dutch scholar Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus, who studied in different monastic schools in Europe in the 15th century. 'Mundus' is Latin for 'world'. Erasmus Mundus is the global Avtaar of Erasmus that supports academic collaborations between prominent universities and academic institutions across the globe. It is truly to be confluence of knowledge as institution heads and deans of leading universities in Asia, Europe, Middle East and Latin America are taking part in this summit for knowledge sharing and networking purposes.

Over eighty academicians from over fifty universities are bringing their expertise into this conference. Dr. Anwar Ali, Director of IMT Ghaziabad expressed his pleasure on being a vital part of this knowledge sharing experience by hosting the summit and said, 'Through its International Relations, IMT Ghaziabad has ensured its position among the premier business schools in India. Erasmus Mundus agreement is another 'feather in the cap' for IMT Ghaziabad which will provide impetus for IMT to strive further.' Prof. Kim van der Borght, Professor of International Economic Law at the Centre for Economic Law & Governance (Vrije Universiteit Brussels) added that association with one of the premier business schools in India is of great advantage and would open up opportunities for students and faculty members at Vrije Universiteit to work closely with their counterparts at IMT and gain an opportunity to observe and learn about Indian Business practices. Institutes under the Lot 11 stand to gain from this strengthened cooperation between IMT and VUB. Filip Callewaert, Head of the International Relations & Mobility Office at Vrije Universiteit Brussels commented that they have already formulated a successful relationship with IMT Ghaziabad and Erasmus Mundus ensures that this relation will be strengthened further and the spirit of cooperation will extended to other premier institutions in the Lot11 EMECW.

1...1,7281,7291,730...1,760Page 1,729 of 1,760

LATEST NEWS

EDITOR PICKS

Top Trending News

POPULAR POSTS

Top Trending Categories

POPULAR CATEGORY

Latest Articles

© Elets Technomedia Pvt Ltd ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.