Edify School Nagpur: Nurturing Talents

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April 18, 2017

Edify means “To provide Knowledge.” The Edify School at Kamptee road Nagpur was established under the aegis of Singh Education Society in 2010 by Tavinder Singh Kohli with a mission to “Nurture individual talents and abilities, promote academic competency and develop core values of respect, diversity, effort and the joy of learning.” The mission is carried out by renowned educationist and vision oriented directors Inderpreet Singh Tuli and Mandeep Kaur Tuli.

The Edify School has 50 branches all over India. We have our presence in Dubai and Abu Dhabi with one branch each at both the places. 145 pre-primary schools are technologically groomed and futuristically enabled under the flagship of the DRS Education Society. The society is delivering world-class education under the mentorship of T N Sheshan (Former Election Commissioner), Ashok Ganguly, Gulab Ramchandani (Head Master of Doon Public School), Kaisar Dopeshi (Principal, Singapore International School, Mumbai) and P R Gopala Rao (Former Director Advisory Reserve Bank of India, Consultant to World Bank).

The school has been bestowed with the “Bharat Shiksha Award”. Edify School has also received “The Most Evolving School Award” from DRS Education society, Hyderabad. Rotary Club of Ishanya, Nagpur has also awarded the school for its outstanding performances.

The school has successfully entered in its seventh year of operation by following the 3C Concept – Content, Character and Competence. The 3C curriculum helps a teacher in creating future-ready citizens. Technology is evolving at a rapid pace and we have to be in sync with it. Within next decade, gadgets that we are much talking so boastfully about now, will be obsolete.

Not only equipments and gadgets, even cultures, philosophies, social behaviour will be transformed completely. The 3C concept comes into play when we think about preparing our students for unforeseen challenges. They need to be problem solvers, confident and globally adoptable.

The student centred learning environment nurtures academic brilliance and leadership qualities in every child. Thus the 3C Concept helps in building a society of individuals with progressive thinking. Such individuals, after schooling at Edify, will help in developing a knowledge-based society with their local understanding and global perspective.

The world class facilities being provided to children include well equipped, temperature controlled and spacious classrooms with interactive boards, modern comfortable furniture, individual lockers to each student. The classroom strength does not exceed 25 students and no grade has more than three sections. The school provides for both indoor as well as outdoor games such as Skating, football, basket ball, hockey, volleyball, badminton cricket, kho-kho, chess, table tennis etc. The school library has a huge collection of books and it is updated after every six months. The school stresses on the importance of eating together and thus has a huge dining area equipped with a canteen to make lunch hour a happy experience and a time of bonding between students and teachers.

Meritorious and excellent performance of the students at national and international forums has made the school proud. Two batches of class 10 secured 100 per cent results and 25 per cent students were rank holders in the merit list. The students participated in competitions like Edifest (Hyderabad), Zee fest etc and won 34 medals. A student of the Edify School won gold in under 17 category of National SQAY Tournament, New Delhi.

The school boasts of an energetic and supportive bunch of parents who have been the greatest support system of the school. The parents have brought the school to its present dizzying heights of success and higher number of student enrolments each year. It is the involvement and faith of parents in all our bold initiatives and development strategies that established us as a brand name in such a short span of time.

The school stresses on the core values of discipline in students and makes them aware of their responsibilities towards family, society and the Nation. Edify school is a trendsetter in Nagpur as it is providing world class value based education

Learning Edge: Revolutionising Education in India

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digitalLEARNING Network

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April 18, 2017

Learning Edge India Private Limited was founded in 2004 by edupreneurs, Mr Vittal Bhandary and Mrs Preeti Bhandary, pioneers & change leaders in the field of early childhood education. This was a sequel to Preeti’s grand success with “Salmiya”, a playschool that she had started in Kuwait in 2000.

Learning Edge started off with their flagship offering, Little Elly – the concept preschool’s first centre in Bengaluru in 2004. Since then, Learning Edge has not looked back and has now emerged as a leader amongst preschool chains. Today, the company has 120+ Little Elly preschools across 15 cities in India. Over 45000 children have been a part of the Lit.

As an extension of Little Elly, the company launched Elly Child Care in 2011. Elly Child Care centres are integrated preschool & childcare setups. Elly Child Care is a recognized child care provider and a preferred partner for large corporates & organizations such as Honeywell, SAP, ABB, L&T, HP, Tech Mahindra, JSW to name a few. Elly Child Care centres are equipped to handle children as young as six months with facilities such as diaper changing rooms and feeding rooms for lactating mothers. A vibrant curriculum combining learning with play, delivered in a hygienic and comforting facility ensures total development of each child at his or her own pace. Elly Child Care is certified by Early Childhood Association.

Glentree Academy is Learning Edge India Private Limited’s foray into K-12 school education. The first school was launched in Whitefield, Bengaluru in 2015. The company is in the process of launching two more schools in Bengaluru for the academic session 2018 – 19. The values of Glentree Academy are rightly embodied in its motto, “Learning for Life”. The holistic academic curriculum, combined with the varied extracurricular activities ensures that learning at Glentree Academy is not only fun but is also well – balanced and suitably challenging for all. Glentree Academy schools offer the choice of Indian and International programs affiliated to CBSE or ICSE or IGCSE.

According to Mr Viswanath K, Chief Little Elly family since its inception. In 2016, the company marked its international presence by establishing Little Elly preschools in Kuwait and Seattle, USA.

Little Elly provides individualised learning opportunities with well-researched teaching methods for the holistic development of a child. Little Elly’s aesthetically designed curriculum is based on the Maria Montessori and Rudolph Steiner methods and the program fosters every child’s social, aesthetic and motor skills. At Little Elly, the focus is on creating independent and confident citizens poised to meet the challenges of an ever-changing world.

(ECA) for adherence to required safety standards.

In order to fill up a nagging gap of trained teachers in the education industry, Learning Edge India Pvt Ltd established LETTER – a teacher training academy in 2012. The academy offers various diploma and certification programs in Early Childhood Education for preschool and primary school teachers. LETTER trainees include fresh graduates, home makers and professionals looking for a career in teaching. LETTER’s unique “Monitored Internship Program” ensures hands-on teaching experience for all trainees.

Operating Officer of Learning Edge India Private Limited, the company is poised for extensive growth over the next five years. “We are keen on setting up at least 100 more Little Elly preschools across the country over the next three years with primary focus on Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad”.

He add “We foresee a surge in the growth of our Elly Child Care centres because of the new legislation which has made it mandatory for mid and large size organisations to provide childcare facilities for the children of their employees. We anticipate at least 50 new Elly Child Care centres over the next two years”.

eShiksa: Offering a Special Narrative to Institutes’ Management

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digitalLEARNING Network

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April 17, 2017

eShiksa, the education management portal, provides parents/students a single window to view various reports on the academic front, paying all types of school/ college fees online through the web and mobile app. It takes care of the automation of the entire ecosystem of the education institute, says Pravin Sharma, Director & Chief Executive Officer (CEO), eShiksa, in conversation with Elets News Network.

What vision drives eShiksa?
eShiksa is a start up with a mission to provide unique features and services to the education institutes that are meant to result in technological and economical growth of the institutes. We plan to be an online platform for on-demand services in education, enabling more and more services for students and parents.

What innovative and cost effective education management services are provided by the company to educational institutions for easingup the teaching-learning process?
eShiksa is an education management portal that facilitates smooth management of educational affairs of an institute. It covers all the aspects of education business, including administrative, academic and accounting activities. eShiksa provides the parents/students a single window for viewing various reports on the academic front. It also helps in paying all kinds of school/college fees online through the web and mobile app. The portal takes care of the automation of the entire ecosystem of the education institute, right from students’ admission to exit, apart from allowing portal and mobile app access to parent/students which makes their interaction with the institute quite smooth and easy.

“eShiksa is an education management portal that facilitates smooth management of educational affairs of an institute and covers all aspects of educational business, including administrative, academic and accounting activities.”

To provide good quality education, it is a considered a must for every institute to manage, analyse and report extensive data, how does eShiksa serve institutes in this regard?
The portal helps educators to manage, analyse and report extensive data, while saving time by eliminating repeated data entry. It covers all the aspects of educational business, including administrative, academic and accounting activities. Various reports related to different departments are available on the platform that can be used by the institute for analysis and usages.

Other than educational business, does you company provide administrative and accounting assistance to the institutes?
The portal facilitates educators in analysing, managing and reporting extensive data, while saving time. It covers all the aspects of education business, including administrative, academic and accounting activities. We are providing complete reporting functionality that covers the entire ecosystem for an education institute.

How does the internship provided by your company help students in bridging the industrial and academic gap?
We are a startup and we mostly hire fresh talent who have been phenomenal so far and have been doing well.

What are your plans and pipeline projects?
We want to onboard 1,000+ institutes in next 18-24 months (about two years) and cover more number of services for the users.

Annual Resource Guide: Sourcing Educational Prerequisites

Magazine

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digitalLEARNING Network

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April 17, 2017

Digital Learning Annual Resource Guide 2017, is taking forward its legacy and previous years’ success. A high demand of resource guide in the market has compelled us to bring out a new and improved version for better insights. The guide hopes to enable various stakeholders including engineering aspirants to make an informed decision, writes Akash Tomer of Elets News Network (ENN).

Over the years, education sector has gone through several transitions. Along with the world, the learning industry has witnessed a string of technological innovations in the sector. Adoption of technology has changed the face of education industry from “chalk and talk” methods to digital learning that has streamlined the teaching-learning experiences. Technological innovations in the sector have also paved the way for rapid expansion in the number of education e-solution providers in the country. From preschool admissions to campus management solutions for higher educational institutions and from K12 education technology providers to cutting edge education products – there seems to be no dearth of solution providers in the market.

Technologies in education sector are becoming more and more viable and user-friendly. The objective of this resource guide is to provide the education stakeholders a clear understanding on the technology solutions to ease the teaching, learning and school management processes. The issue hopes to help readers in not only getting the highlights of existing technologies but also inform people about the latest and prospective development and innovations in the education industry.

Nowadays, technology-enabled learning and teaching have become essential for educational institutions, from preschools to universities. Globally, not only governments or school leaders but teachers and digitalLEARNING APRIL 2017 7 digitallearning.eletsonline.com parents are also considering technology as a crucial part of children’s education. Nurturing students’ knowledge and skills related to Information Communication Technology (ICT) during their studies provide an important ground to them in life.

The huge expansion of IT enabled learning in India also necessitates a guide, which can help academicians to be informed and also choose from the various solutions available. The Digital Learning Resource Guide, since past, has been playing an instrumental role in helping academicians and education stakeholders in choosing e- services and infrastructure to suit their requirements. With the influx of new technology and increased connectivity, a focused strategic planning is important to ensure digital learning opportunities for all students and educators. Most school districts have made investments in technology equipment, bandwidth and networking, training teachers and are supporting both the technology and those using it.

In 2017 so far, Digital Learning magazine has brought a platform to engage global eduleaders and thought leaders of the industry under one roof during the 8th Elets World Education Summit 2017, Bahrain, held in March. The event was a perfect blend of innovators exhibiting their products and showcasing and synergising learning at a new level. It also encouraged a large number of private players to come up with new solutions and productively utilise their existing technology services for educational concerns. With the help of annual resource guide, we have tried to bring d ive r s i f i ed technological innovations at one place. We have tried to classify the companies as per their products. Details about the classification are as follows:

E- learning: There is a plethora of different e-learning systems (otherwise known as Learning Management Systems, or LMSs for short) and methods, which allow courses to be delivered. With the right tool, various processes can be automated such as a course with set materials and automatically marked tests. E-learning is an affordable (and often free) solution that provides the learners with the ability to fit learning around their lifestyles, effectively allowing even the busiest person to further a career and gain new qualifications.

Infrastructure: Even though it is generally said to study one doesn’t need much as he or she should better focus on the study material at hand rather than getting affected by the sundry factors sounding hurdles. But a section of educationalists have a different take on the factors influencing education. They suggest that the basic infrastructure at educational institutions must have following parameters:

The basic facilities like adequate space for students and teachers, a proper temperature to study or teach in besides ventilation, lighting, water, electricity and Internet services, as well as sanitary services and the respective drainage of sewage water
Spaces for the development of rehearsals and practices such as libraries, and natural sciences, information technology, and other labs
Spaces for the development of talents and entertainment, sports, and culture

A review of the most recent literature indicates that investments to improve school infrastructure has effects on the educational quality at least in the following three dimensions: College management software: There are many college management software in market and its use help schools to save time and money both… How? Answer is in elaborated way.

The definition and objective has witnessed a transformation. The education, which used to be acquired and treasured in notebooks, is today a mission for many to acquire it while accomplishing various targets linked to it for bright future.

Today, colleges face a lot of challenges on a daily basis just to operate the daily administration. Processes like declaration of results, data management, fees collection, timetable management, attendance management of both staff and students and other similar functions are done manually. Manual work involves a lot of time, energy and resources.

Such things can now be performed easily, thanks to college management software. The challenges faced by educational institutions to manage the day-today running of the school are immense. That is why it has become imperative that every engineering institution should have management software to increase efficiency and reduce time and effort. Listed below are twelve reasons why every institution should have a college management system:

E-Communication
Accessible any time any place
Monitoring attendance
Easy knowledge sharing
Customisation and configuration
Comprehensive graphical analysis
Personalised teaching and learning

Educational Institutes with Diversified Teaching Techniques:

A number of different teaching techniques have evolved due to the transformation in education sector. Interestingly, most of these teaching techniques are very new. The new teaching methods not only involves the use of technology but it also uses the senses of a kid to understand a concept better. Such practices have simply given the classroom education a new lease of life allowing us to approach old ideas in new ways:

Flipped Classroom
Design Thinking
Self Learning
Gamification
Social Media

There is an array of free learning and teaching tools available for students and teachers which can be used to encourage engagement, participation and a sense of fun into the classroom. Teachers can create an interactive and dynamic classroom environment to test and enhance student’s knowledge

Ranking the Finest in Indian Private Engineering Education

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digitalLEARNING Network

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April 17, 2017

Ravi Gupta, Editor-in-Chief, Elets Technomedia Pvt Ltd

The meaning of education is steadily acquiring a new definition with each passing year, creating a huge scope to learn, unlearn, and educate in new fashion. Finding out the most suitable institute or college as per one’s academic prowess and financial means most often proves a Herculean task, especially in engineering stream.

Considering the complications of zeroing-in on the most suitable option, we decided to devote our Digital Learning magazine’s latest issue to “State-wise Ranking of Private Engineering Institutes and Colleges -2017”, conducted by a perception-based methodology by a jury involving experts.

We’ve tried to highlight how various engineering institutes and colleges are fairing in different areas to enhance quality of education. Hence, in a novel bid which involved the service providers inviting service seekers to rank their performance on an open platform, we have brought out this ranking issue.

The objective is to serve all those linked to an engineering college, i.e., parents, teachers, educators and the college management, decipher the average to the top-class private engineering institutes and colleges in India.

In addition, our cover story – “Annual Resource Guide: Sourcing Educational Prerequisites” – is a step towards furthering Digital Learning magazine’s legacy providing better insights, enabling consumers to take an informed decision. We hope it would provide a better insight to the education stakeholders.

As readers know that our World Education Summits have been an endeavour to recognise and honour outstanding achievers time and again, we recently organised “elets 8th World Education Summit Bahrain 2017”, highlighting the significance of innovations and entrepreneurial spirit in the education space of the island nation and the MENA region.

Inaugurated by H E Dr Majid Bin Ali Al-Nuaimi, Minister of Education, Kingdom of Bahrain, on March 8, the summit witnessed a grand congregation of leading speakers and hundreds of delegates from as many as 12 countries from across the world. They deliberated on crucial issues and shared their unique experiences in the education space.

With a bouquet of ranking, special stories, and interviews, we hope the latest issue would offer new insights of the education world. Looking forward to receiving our readers’ valuable feedback.

8th elets World Education Summit Bahrain 2017

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digitalLEARNING Network

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April 17, 2017

Uttar Pradesh government asked private schools to submit fee structure within 15 days

By

Akash

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April 14, 2017

The newly formed government of Uttar Pradesh (UP) has asked all the private schools to submit details of the fees charged from students within 15 days. The schools are also asked to submit payments made to teachers and other infrastructure details within the same period.

Along with this, the schools also have to submit details of all the allowances charged from students except the fee and also the information regarding any commercial activity taking place on school campuses.

District inspector of schools (DIoS), Umesh Tripathi, has circulated a letter in this regard to school managements during a meeting of school principals and private school representatives of private schools held at his office, reported Hindustan Times.

Representatives from the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) were also present on the occasion who questioned the heavy fees and other allowances being charged by the schools.

In order to resolve the issue, the school representatives present at the meeting have suggested categorising the schools according to their infrastructure and learning levels, and fee structures should be decided according to that.

India, Australia to train 4 lakh trainers, assessors

By

Akash

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April 14, 2017

Australia and India will work together to build capacity of four lakh trainers and assessors over the next few years, Australian Minister for Education and Training, Simon Birmingham said on Tuesday.

While speaking at the fourth Australia-India Skill Conference, 2017, Bimingham said, “We believe we can help because you recognise and acknowledge our experience in a very successful vocational education system.” The conference was held in conjunction with the visit of Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to India, reported Business Standard.

Birmingham said that Australia will help India to achieve its target in training adding programme would also look at scaling up the number of apprentices in India.

Rajeev Pratap Rudy, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, said, “For very long, in India, education did not carry the skills along. Skills never got the focus that it should have.” He said India need to train 400 million people in organised and unorganised sector.

Rudy said: “The young trained junior commissioned officers who have long trained in many technical aspects of Indian armed forces… generally they retire young after 20 years of service.

“So, we have partnered with Indian armed forces… we have established mechanism where these youngsters, who are to retire, within six months of their retirement they are put to certain courses where they can be trained as assessors or entrepreneurs or trainers,” he said.

“I think this programme is going very successfully now and we have launched several batches of such youngsters,” he added.

The two ministers also launched a joint initiative between the Government of Australia and the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), “International Trainers and Assessors Training Courses”.

The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has organised the conference in partnership with the Department of Education and Training, Government of Australia, under the ambit of the Australia-India Education Council recently.

CL Educate acquires Pearson’s ETEN and AKMS

By

Akash

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April 14, 2017

CL Educate has acquired Pearson group’s ETEN and Accendere Knowledge Management Services (AKMS). CL Educate, an education and knowledge services provider, has recently launched its IPO to get listed on the stock exchanges.

ETEN is the test preparation business division of Pearson’s IndiaCan Education Pvt Ltd. It provides tech-based satellite coaching for chartered accountant programme and civil services.

AKMS is a knowledge management company, specialising in areas such as incubating research programmes for universities.

After ETEN buyout, CL Educate is expected to expand its network up to 192 centres out of which five will high-tech broadcast studios. The centres will help them to reach around 93,000 students. According to a release, the ETEN deal involves a staggered payment of Rs6 crore over 30 months and 4% revenue share for the next three years, reported Livemint.

“ETEN adds a large knowledge-based test-prep segment of CA and strengthens civil services for CL Educate in test preparation business,” CL Educate vice chairman and managing director Gautam Puri said.

In 2015, CL Educate had purchased 51% stake in the company with a call option for the remaining shareholding to be exercised on or after 1 April 2017.

MHRD to scrap Marks moderation Policy

By

Akash

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April 14, 2017

Ministry of Human Resource and Development (MHRD) is planning to scrap moderation of marks in board exams.

The move comes after a request to remove the marks moderation policy, made by the Central board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to MHRD in December last year. The policy always led to inflation of marks in board exam results and also in raising the cut-offs in college admissions in the country.

According to the marks moderation policy, students are awarded 15% extra marks in the subjects that have the difficult question papers in board exams. It is very important for all the boards in the country to scrap the marks moderation policy as in case of not doing so by other boards, CBSE students will be at a disadvantage during UG college admissions, reported NDTV.

A senior MHRD official said, “The ministry has called a meeting of all state education secretaries and chairmen of the state boards on April 24 and the issue is likely to be taken up there. The recommendations by the CBSE will be taken into account and we will see if a consensus can be arrived at with the states.”

After receiving complaints about the difficulty level of questions in various subjects, the CBSE has formed an expert panel to examine the question paper and to decide the grace marks that should be awarded to each student. This had resulted in the inflation of students who scored more than 95% in board exams between 2008 and 2014.

High percentage of marks in 12th board exams, many Delhi University colleges have to set high cut off marks, 100% in some cases during UG admission.