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NCERT, NIOS submit proposal for 24X7 TV channel National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) and National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) have submitted a proposal for launching 24X7 television channel to cater to the needs of school education and adult literacy.

The Central Institute of Educational Technology, National Council of Educational Research and Training, New Delhi and the National Institute of Open Schooling, NOIDA, Uttar Pradesh will be the lead partners. The Department of Adult Education

Kerala’s IT@School project imparts massive ICT training to parents

Kerala’s IT@School Project imparted massive ICT (Information Communication Technology) training to parents, as part of 100 days programme of the Government. The programme has been undertaken at all the High Schools of the State.

As part of the programme, a One-day ICT awareness session was conducted first in a campaign mode wherein parents got a bird’s eye view on the new outlook of the classrooms along with the upgraded

educational systems, ICT facilities made available in schools, ICT enabled education, functioning of school IT Clubs, IT Mela, various ICT trainings for students, more about IT@ School ViCTERS channel, prevention of Cyber crimes.

In continuation to the ICT awareness programme and as part of ‘Software Freedom Day’ celebrations on 17th September 2011, specific ICT training would commence in all High Schools for those parents who are keen to learn more on ICT.

The training would be conducted in batches without affecting the normal functioning of schools. A new training module has been developed for the programme, which comprises of usage of Free Software, Operating System, Word Processing, Malayalam Computing, and Internet.

With the acquisition of these skills, the parents would be able to equip with functional knowledge on day-to-day IT activities like working of storage devices, CD-writing, Emails, Malayalam Typing, Cyber security.

Vocational Education in North East The IGNOU Institute for Vocational Education & Training (IIVET), Shillong - which forms a part of the Education Development of the North East Unit (EDNERU) has tied up with Aircel Ltd. for a vocational training and Computer Literacy Programme for poor school children from classes 6 12. The six months’ programme began on 25th July, 2011, with 240 students attending the first batch. The other partners in this project include Empower Pragati and Microsoft.

and its sister agencies in the States, State Institutes of Educational Technology, Kendriya Vidyalaya Sanghatan, Novodaya Vidyalaya Samiti and other educational agencies in the Centre and the States will be invited to participate and contribute.

Govt identifies Special Focus Districts under SSA

The Department of School Education and Literacy has identified 389 Special Focus Districts (SFD) under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) for the year 2011-12 on the basis of (a) Programme category gaps,(i) districts with a classroom gap exceeding 3000 classrooms, (ii) districts with more than 20,000 out-of-school children, (iii) gender gap in enrollment exceeding 10 percent at primary and 20 percent at upper primary level, and (iv) retention rate lower than 60 percent and (b) Social category gaps, districts with more than 25 percent Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe population, 20 percent Muslim minority population, as well as districts affected by Left Wing Extremism and Border Area Districts.

Several districts have been classified as SFDs under one or more of the above categories.

Districts have been categorised as per the above criteria to enable them to make focused interventions for overcoming specific gaps in their overall endeavor to achieve universal elementary education. The categorisation of districts as SFDs helps the states to plan and implement interventions in a need based manner, with the flexibility of changing these districts from year to year as the parameters change.

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IGNOU trains teachers to develop online courses IGNOU has organised threeday conference to bring about a change in the way lessons are imparted to the students who are occupied by the teaching materials in one corner, huge chunk of registers on other; supplementary materials on one shelf and their library routine on the other.

The Inter University Consortium (IUC) of the university organised a workshop to train the trainers who were invited from various universities in order to address the change, which has struck the 21st century teachers and learners. The change is the online learning/ teaching experience that has made easily acces-

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sible learning/ teaching material just a click away. Many open universities in the world and other traditional universities are developing online courses to enhance the reach of their university’s study materials through videos, web content, internet, satellite or CDROM. Private institutions are also offering online courses. Online education is becoming popular day-by-day, but adapting face-to-face

courses for online instruction presents many challenges and IGNOU took the initiatives to address them.

The training programme was attended by twenty one faculty members from State Open Universities, Private Universities offering courses through Distance Mode and Faculty of Distance Education Institutes in Formal Universities like Jamia Hamdard , NIMS University , Anna University , Karpagam University, Dr C V Raman University, Institute of Advanced Studies in Education University, Tilak Maharashtra Vidyapeeth , Lovely School of Open and Distance Learning , Krishna Kanta Handiqui State Open

University, Dayalbagh Educational Institute, Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan and UP Rajarshi Tandon Open University.

This training workshop was imparted for awareness and Capacity Building programme to the faculty of universities (Open, Private –offering courses through distance mode) in developing Online Courses. Accordingly, the programme used structured presentations on the new concepts. After the brief presentations, the faculty worked individually on the terminal and explored the usefulness of the new technology for their institution. Training was mainly based on experiential learning methodologies.

Education Industry to witness a heavy influx of investments

Task Force to Monitor Higher Education

Education industry is one of the booming and the most evolving economic sectors in India. With over 1 million schools providing education from K-12 (kindergarten - Class 12) to over 200 million students, the government spending on the sector is expected to rise in the 11th five year plan.

According to the recent survey by ASSOCHAM, Private Equity (PE) and venture capitalists (VC) firms are likely to invest Rs 4,500 crore in the education sector over the next three years. The booming education sector in India has opened a wide playground for Private Equity (PE) and venture capitalists (VC). PE investment in the education sector has increased from $129 million in 2009 to $183 million in 2010.

With the growing size and diversity of the higher education sector in the country particularly in terms of courses, management and geographical coverage it has become necessary to develop a sound data-base on higher education.

In view of this, Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) has initiated an All India Survey on Higher Education. A Task Force has been constituted under the chairmanship of Additional Secretary (HE), MHRD with representatives from University Grants Commission. All India Council for Technical Education, Medical Council of India, Indian Institute of Agricultural Statistics Research Institute, Central Statistical Office, Universities, State Higher Education Departments etc. as members to oversee the survey work.

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Testament to the growth opportunities in the education sector is the recent investment of $ 15 million from Fidelity Growth partners India (FGPI) in Classteacher Learning Systems. Classteacher Learning Systems, a pioneer in educational content solutions in the country, is one of the leading entities to promote the new face of education.

The investment will be used to further the company’s product portfolio and strengthen Classteacher’s role as an organisation that combines technology and innovation as part of its commitment to education.

september / 2011 www.digitallearning.in

CBSE to start schools’ accreditation The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has decided to accredit the affiliated schools, once in every three years, in the areas of Academic Processes and Outcomes, Co-scholastic Processes and Outcomes, Infrastructure – adequacy, func-

tionality and aesthetics, Human Resources. They have also included Management and Administration, Leadership, and Beneficiary Satisfaction The accreditation would help to set benchmarks in the identified areas.