A mobile app to detect skin cancer and ailment

By

-

December 24, 2013

IIT Kahargpur students have developed a mobile phone application which can help in accurate diagnosis of skin cancers and ailments.
The application ‘ClipOCam-Derma’ is developed in the School of Medical Science and Technology at IIT Kharagpur and can be used on any smartphone. It is a portable and affordable solution that has won the ‘GE Edison Challenge 2013’ and has been awarded an incubation prize of Rs. 10 lakhs. The app can be used by semi-skilled paramedics working in rural and primary healthcare centres. It will assist in fast and high-precision screening of skin lesions and abnormalities like cancers, psoriasis, scaling, keratinisation, melanoma, inflammation, ulcers, lipoma, healing and non-healing wounds, and heavy-metal induced dysplasia, all of which may or may not be evidently visible on the surface. The app will help in reaching out to the people in remote areas lacking even minimal access to expert physicians. The app will not only help in diagnosis but also monitoring the control of the skin disease. The tests have found the app to be 99 percent accurate.

The mobile app which will be launched in the market after regulatory approvals can help physicians speed up diagnosis and handle more patients within a shorter time.

Tougher norms lead private schools to shut down

By

digitalLEARNING Network

-

December 23, 2013

Hundreds of parents protested against the closing down of a private school at Ganapathy, Coimbatore as it claim of not being able to meet the new norms of the government due financial inability of the school.
Excessive regulation of private schools is pushing many towards a close down, the ultimate sufferers being students. The management of the private school at Ganapathy has decided to shut the school down soon at the end of the current academic year, which has petrified the parents whose wards are studying in the school.
Around 150 parents were seen protesting against the management’s decision of closing down citing that strength of nearly 800 students would be affected by the decision. The protest was ceased only after the intervention by the Chief Education Officer.
The management says the decision is the result of the strict governmental norms. The Central governments’ Right to Education Act mandates a certain number of classrooms and teachers and the Fee Determination Committee which prohibits schools from collecting money from the students to meet the additional infrastructure required, imposes significant financial burden on private schools further pushing them towards a close down. Also, the schools were not given enough time to comply with the new norms.
However the talks are on with the school management asking them to close down their higher secondary sections. Conversion of the school to high school status would bring about some relaxation in the norms.

A plea for the common admission forms for Nursery

By

digitalLEARNING Network

-

December 23, 2013

The All-India Parents’ Association wrote to the Delhi Education Department to issue a common nursery admission form for the general category.
The criterion for seeking nursery admissions according to the latest guidelines issued by Lieutenant-Governor Najeeb Jung will depend on five things- neighbourhood up to six kilometers from the school, sibling studying in the institution, parent alumni in the school, inter-transfer case and female gender.
The new guidelines clearly state that there shall be no management quota for nursery admissions in any private unaided recognized schools of Delhi. Moreover, the Right to Education Act has also been made applicable to these admissions. As per the guidelines admission to a class will now be divided into four parts, 25 per cent of the seats are reserved for the economically weaker sections and disadvantaged groups, 5 per cent for wards of the staff/employees of the school and 5 per cent for girls.
Common admission form could be huge step towards checking commercialisation of education and saving the parents from exploitation at the hands of the management. With progressive steps being taken, all eyes will be set on nursery admissions in the capital this year which will begin from next month.

Education needs to be re-invented: Rahul Gandhi

By

digitalLEARNING Network

-

December 23, 2013

The Indian education system needs to be ‘re-invented’ and a network needs to be build between higher education and industry, said Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi speaking at the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).
Gandhi also said in India education and industry are thought of in two separate ways. But modern universities and education are the link that connects industry, government, NGOs and students. Currently, there is a disconnect between the industry and higher education.
He further added that apart from a few institutions and universities, India lacks the level of networking and modern knowledge systems required. He also stressed up on the need for an increase in the access to education system which can be done through use of modern technology. Also a lots needs to be done in terms of improving the quality of the teacher and building connectivity in primary education. Broadly he focused on the need for re-inventing the education system in the country.

No PPP mode for IIITs: Parliamentary Panel

By

digitalLEARNING Network

-

December 23, 2013

Setting up of new Indian Institute of Information and Technology (IIITs) under Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode has been strongly disapproved by a Parliamentary panel. It fears that PPP mode might create conflict between the welfare objective of government and profit motive of the industry.
The government proposes to set up 20 new IIITs under the PPP mode in the country but the department related to the Standing Committee on HRD apprehended that given the provisions in the legislation, these institutions would ultimately function as a purely private entity. The committee was of the view that an individual body having a stake on the ownership might give rise to conflict between the government and the industry.
The cost of each IIIT would be Rs 128 crore which would be contributed by the Centre, the state government and the industry in ratio of 50:35:15 percent. The committee further cited the example of state-funded institutes like IITs and NITs which excel despite no industry having a stake in their ownership.
The committee made its observation after examining the Indian Institute of Information Technology Bill, 2013 introduced in the Lok Sabha during the last Budget Session. The Bill seeks to establish 20 new IIITs and declare the existing four into institutes of national importance.

Unrecognised schools under education department’s scanner

By

digitalLEARNING Network

-

December 20, 2013

The state department of elementary education in Coimbatore issued notices to around 68 nursery and primary schools running without mandatory state recognition.
The schools have been asked to get various certificates required to run a school. If they fail to meet the conditions mandated by the government by the end of this academic year, they will be directed to close down.
Certifications needed to run a school includes stability certificate, fire and safety certificate as well as certificates from the department of health and the city corporation. Another important condition is the minimum land required to run a school. Schools in corporation limits must have a minimum of 33 cents, in municipality areas 55 cents, town panchayat an acre and village panchayats three acre to be free to function.

At the start of the current academic year, around 30 schools were forced to shut down citing similar reasons which had an adverse affect on students as many had found it difficult to get admissions in other schools. A similar situation is feared to arise if the schools under the scanner fail to submit the required certifications.

CBSE to conduct ‘Science Exhibition 2014’

By

digitalLEARNING Network

-

December 20, 2013

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) is going to organize its Regional and National Level Science Exhibition in the month of July, 2014.
CBSE’s main objective behind this exhibition is to provide a common platform to schools, teachers and students to give shape to their innovative ideas and to offer a creative forum for the students to pursue their natural curiosity, innovation and inventiveness. These exhibitions also try to be a medium for popularizing science and increase awareness among the stakeholders about the close relationship between science, technology and the society. This year’s main theme is ‘Science and Mathematical Innovations’ with sub themes being agriculture, energy, health, environment and resources.
Apart from organizing the science exhibitions at regional and national level every year, CBSE has taken on a number of other initiatives in order to impart interactive, participatory, hands-on, innovative and creative learning experiences to its students.

J&K class 10th results out: Girls vanquished boys

By

digitalLEARNING Network

-

December 20, 2013

Jammu and Kashmir girls excelled boys in the class 10th examinations, securing 70 percent of the first 20 ranks.
269 students made it to the first 20 positions out of which 186 were girls. The first 10 positions were acquired by 55 girls out of a sum of 68 students.
Kauser Jan, a student of Iqbal Memorial School (IMI), Bemina was declared the topper with a whopping score of 99 percent with the second position being shared by three students scoring 98.8 percent.
Around 31,130 students (70.58 percent) passed the examination. 26,511 boys and 22,847 girls passed out of the total 49,358 students enrolled with the Jammu and Kashmir Board of School Education.
Though the girls made the cut, the pass percentage of boys this year too remained high with 73.82 percent.

Sex education in Bengal schools still a matter of debate

News

By

digitalLEARNING Network

-

December 20, 2013

Study of sex education in the state-run schools of West Bengal is still a matter of debate. The state education ministry is still in the process of collecting views of various educationists and stakeholders on the matter.

Last year, the Council of Boards of School Education in India (Cobse) had proposed the inclusion of adolescent education as part of the syllabus from classes 8 to 12. A few years back, the previous Left Front government in the state had introduced teaching of sex education under the name of lifestyle education. But it proved to be a failure with reluctant teachers utilising the lifestyle education classes for finishing the syllabus in other subjects. Therefore, the present state education minister wants to consult all the stakeholders before implementing sex education in the state-run schools.

HRD and Prasar Bharati to start 50 education channels next year

By

digitalLEARNING Network

-

December 20, 2013

Human Resource and Development (HRD) ministry along with the public broadcaster Prasar Bharati are planning to start 50 educational channels from May 1, 2014. This would enable students to hear lectures and interact with the academicians on TV.
The channels would gradually be increased from 50 to 1000 and has the potential to be viewed on 167 million TV sets which would be beneficial to 67 percent population of the country. The agreement, for this one of its kind project, was signed between Prasar Bharati CEO, Jawhar Sircar and HRD secretary Ashok Thakur. As per the agreement, Prasar Bharati, the public broadcaster, will provide expertise in carrying the channels on a DTH platform and the ministry would focus on providing content of the programmes.
The channels would run structured programmes the content for which will come from institutions like IITs, IGNOU, State Open Universities, Central Universities, NITs and others. Each channel will have live telecast of 9 hours a day which will be repeated for the next 15 hours. The channels will cover almost all the curriculum based content which is being taught in the universities and colleges. The content would also be available on internet. The channels will carry Doordarshan logo and will have to be accessed through Set Top Box.

LATEST NEWS

EDITOR PICKS

Top Trending News

POPULAR POSTS

Top Trending Categories

POPULAR CATEGORY

Latest Articles