A digital cloud of your own

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September 1, 2014

We all have at some point of time carried bundles of certificates and their attested photo-copies to our various visits to government offices. No longer. Under the instructions from Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself, the information and technology department is working on creating a ‘digital cloud’ for every Indian wherein, all the certificates issued by the government — education, residential, medical records, birth certificates etc — are to be stored in individual ‘digital lockers’ and a communication protocol established for government departments to access them without physically having to see the hard copy.

This way, a student applying for a government college after having studied in a government school will have all his details such as birth certificate, identity details and educational certificates, school-leaving details et al, already available with the college authorities.

The idea will be floated on MyGov.in portal where suggestions will be sought for working out a “communication protocol” or what is called an applications programming interface ( API) will be solicited.

The portal has already proved to be a big hit. As of now, more than 2 lakh people have registered on it. Ideas for Digital India have received the maximum number of suggestions, followed by Clean India and job creation on the website

Modi to go live on Teacher’s Day

Schools News

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digitalLEARNING Network

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September 1, 2014

Come September 5 and the annual Teacher’s Day celebrations will carry a different hue this time with Prime Minister Narendra Modi meeting over 1,000 school children in New Delhi. The event will be beamed live across the country through TV, radio and the Internet. Teacher’s Day has also been rebranded as ‘Guru Utsav’.

Officials in the HRD ministry say around 14.5 lakh government schools and 4 lakh private schools; including every Jan Shikshan Sansthan, panchayat ghar, adult and informal education centre, and State Resource Centre, would be able to see and listen the PM’s interaction with the school children.

Modi will meet the students, drawn from all classes from 1 to 12 from across the country, at the Manekshaw Centre in Delhi Cantonment between 3 pm and 4.45 pm. He will make an opening speech, after which students will ask him some questions.

52 news channels, radio and FM channels would broadcast the programme. The EDUSAT system will also be utilised. Websites of the HRD Ministry and all state governments’ education departments will stream the programme live.

Modi wants e-learning of Japanese in India

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digitalLEARNING Network

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September 1, 2014

Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants Japan government to take up steps to introduce online learning of Japanese language in the country.

Modi proposed that online and audio-video courses could be started by Japan and exams could be held here, saying it would find many takers among the Indian students. Such a mechanism could be put in place about Indian languages too, he said.

Currently on a five-day state-visit to Japan, Modi told Japanese Deputy Minister for Education, Culture, Sports,Science and Technology during a visit to 136-year-old Taimei Elementary School that though India had introduced Japanese as a language option in its schools, there was a paucity of teachers to teach the language.

PM Modi said that the world accepts 21^st century as the Asian century and for that to happen, countries of the region need to learn each others’ languages. A presentation was also made to Modi on Japan’s elementary and secondary education system.

An official statement added that from his visit to the school, Modi also understood the methods of evaluation and examination and how parents are kept involved with the child’s education, and how the school syllabus is prepared.

Irani asks IIMs to create knowledge consortium

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digitalLEARNING Network

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September 1, 2014

Calling for the Indian Institutes of Managements (IIMs) to bring their management expertise in national development goals, Union Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Zubin Irani has set out a 13-point agenda for them.

Addressing the IIMs’ Conclave with Chairpersons and Directors of 13 IIMs in Bengaluru, Irani asked them to come up with strategies for making the country both manpower ready and teacher ready. She said that along with IITs, IIITs and Central Universities, the IIMs should create a mechanism for a ‘Global Talent Pool’ of eminent persons, who could then contribute their expertise not only to IIMs but to other institutions in the country as well.

“IIMs needed to create a knowledge consortium, based on efforts by IIM Ahmedabad, by bringing together various institutions so as to make possible ideas like credit transfer and twinning programmes,” she said.

Irani said IIMs needed to work with local industries and local communities with a view to enhance their management capacity. She also asked IIMs to contribute their management expertise to such national projects as development of Smart Cities and Green Cities.

The interaction focused on issues related to national development goals, admission process in IIMs, review of the institutes, National Ranking Framework for the management institutions, ICT and other pedagogical innovations and initiatives to scale up research in IIMs, especially the socially relevant research as also to have greater impact on national policy implementation.

Benefits of RGNF Scheme Elude SC, ST Students

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digitalLEARNING Network

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August 28, 2014

Thousands of students from the scheduled castes (SC) and scheduled tribes (ST) are yet to reap the benefits of the Rajiv Gandhi National Fellowship (RGNF) scheme. More than 2,500 SC and ST students from the 2013-14 batch are still waiting for the monetary assistance that was promised under the scheme offered by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment and the Ministry of Tribal Affairs.

Under RGNF, students who belong to SC and ST group are provided financial assistance to pursue regular and full time MPhil and PhD degrees in science, humanities, social science and engineering and technology. Eligible students are entitled to a financial assistance of Rs 16,000 per month.

Alleging high-handedness on part of the University Grants Commission (UGC), students say that repeated attempts to get in touch with the officials have gone unheard. UGC, the apex body for higher education in India, is responsible for the disbursal of funds under this scheme.

Ministry officials too say that they have been unable to release the required funds because the UGC is yet to provide them with the utilisation certificates of the previous batch for RGNF. On the other hand, UGC says that RGNF being a government scholarship, the ministry should not break the continuity.

As per the scheme, 2,000 slots for SC candidates and 667 slots for ST candidates are available every year.

IISc gets UGC nod for FYUP

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digitalLEARNING Network

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August 28, 2014

After having objected to the Four Year Undergraduate Programme (FYUP) being run by three institutions a few months ago, the University Grants Commission (UGC) is understood to have permitted the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore to continue with the four-year programme.

The move followed a detailed clarification from the IISc seeking review of the UGC decision. Students pursuing FYUP get their degrees at the end of three years, while in the fourth year they pursue research work, IISc told the regulator.

The UGC’s green signal comes after it reviewed the detailed clarification given by IISc.

HRD minister Smriti Irani had earlier told the parliament that three institutes – IISc Bangalore, Shiv Nadar Noida and Symboisis Pune – were offering four year BA and B.Sc programmes and the UGC had directed them to discontinue with it.

Less Than a Quarter of Delhi’s Poor Kids Get Free Books

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digitalLEARNING Network

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August 27, 2014

Only 17,500 out of a total of 68,951 children from poor and economically weaker sections (EWS) and disadvantaged groups have been provided with free books during this academic year, the Delhi government informed the Delhi High Court in New Delhi yesterday.

According to a report filed by the Directorate of Education, 17,497 students were provided with free books while 16,467 students got free uniforms. The court was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) demanding proper implementation of the Right To Education Act. The law mandates the government to provide free books and uniforms to children from the EWS and disadvantaged categories in private unaided schools.

The report filed by the Delhi government will be taken up for consideration by a division bench of Justice B D Ahmed and Justice Siddharth Mridul today. The court had earlier slammed the Delhi government for a ‘wishy washy’ report and asked it to file a status report on the number of students in schools in both categories in the 6-14 age group this academic year. The court also sought details regarding the number of students given free books and uniforms.

Centre Invites PepsiCo to Partner for R&D in Processed Food Products

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digitalLEARNING Network

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August 26, 2014

To beat rampant malnutrition and iron deficiency among children, India has invited global soft drink major PepsiCo to partner with it on research and development of processed food products that can be supplied as part of the mid-day meals in rural India.

The Union Budget for 2014-15 allocated Rs 13,215 crore for the Mid-Day Meal scheme.

The suggestion was made by Food Processing Industries Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal during a meeting with PepsiCo Chairman Indra Nooyi.

Badal stressed upon the potential for providing healthy meals to children in their tiffin boxes. The minister also highlighted that large segments of kids in the rural areas are suffering from iron deficiency.

“PepsiCo has already invested substantially in India’s food processing sector and we wish to double this investment in the coming years,” said PepsiCo Chairman Indra Nooyi.

Badal also asked the soft drink major to bring down the sugar content beverages so that the health aspects of such products are duly taken care of. She also suggested that the company should bring out new products in the market that are tasty as well as healthy and nutritious.The minister also cited the example of oat-based products that can be developed as part of the food processing sector to provide choice of healthy and nutritious food products to consumers at a reasonable price.

Irani Asks States to Focus on Girls’ Education

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digitalLEARNING Network

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August 26, 2014

Union minister for Human Resource Development Smriti Irani has asked all states and Union Territories to lay special focus on education for girls and create a conducive environment for girls to go to schools and complete their education.

Speaking of the government’s Beti Bachao Beti Padhao Abhiyan during the Conference of State Education Secretaries in New Delhi today, Irani also asked all state government schools to prepare an action plan for construction of toilets. This is in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s goal for providing all government schools with toilets within a year.

The HRD minister also launched the programme ‘Padhe Bharat Badhe Bharat’ which aims at early reading, writing and comprehensive and early grade mathematics. Irani has sought the co-operation of every state to adopt this programme to make the children skilled. An amount of Rs 2,352.57 crore has been allocated for the year 2014-15 to the states and UTs for the improvement of quality programmes.

The conference also witnessed the launch of “Including Children with Special Needs- Primary Stage”, a Curriculum Adaptation Development publication brought out by the NCERT to help teachers create a classroom environment for children with special needs. The minister noted that though considerable progress had been made in bringing such children into regular schools, providing a truly inclusive education remained an unfinished agenda.

The website of the Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan was also launched during the conference for greater public participation and awareness.

Vietnam Eyes CBSE Pattern in Schools

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digitalLEARNING Network

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August 26, 2014

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) model of education looks set to make its way to the schools of Vietnam. In an interesting move, the Vietnamese government has sought cooperation from India to boost the primary school education.

The proposal is said to have come up during a meeting between the external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj with the Vietnamese leaders during her visit to the Communist country. It was noted that India has a good primary school system.

The CBSE methods of teaching have already been introduced in three subjects – Maths, Science and English – across 25 schools of Vietnam by Navneet Kalia, founder and chairman of Ismart Education. “When one talks about education, everybody thinks of Cambridge and American system. I want everyone to talk about CBSE system,” said Kalia, who has been in Vietnam for the past 17 years.

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