september 2011 / ` 75 / ISSN 0973-4139
www.Digitallearning.in
09 volume
07
issue
Asia’s First Monthly Magazine on ICT in Education
virtual environment
for real learning
N Ravi shanker additional Secretary, Department of IT, mCIT, government of india
Meena Ganesh
Dr Nikhil Sinha
CEO & MD Pearson Education Services
Founding Vice Chancellor, Shiv Nadar University
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volume
07
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SSN 0973-4139
contents COVER STORY
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Virtual labs
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Virtual Environment for Real Learning By Pragya Gupta
interview Chitra Bhatia
Country Head, Sanako Corporation
corporate diary
mlearning
Providing End-to-End Education Solutions For K-12 Sector
New Pedagogy through Mobile Technology for Parents with Special Needs Children
Meena Ganesh, CEO and MD Pearson Education Services
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Project Submitted by Dr Issham Ismail, Universiti Sains Malaysia
academia speak Vocational Education and Skills Training
Learning Can not be Confined to Class Rooms Dr Nikhil Sinha, Founding Vice Chancellor, Shiv Nadar University
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Project Submitted by NIIT
state focus Tracking SSA in Goa
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The Knowledge Network: Connecting Students to Learning Resources Sheena Joseph
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news
Pragya Gupta
higher education
Case Study: Skills Training for ITeS in South Africa: A PPP Model
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National Business International
editorial
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Public Private Partnerships: The Fast Track Way to Education Reforms The education sector today is seeing tremendous amount of enthusiasm and participation from all stakeholders across spectrum. The past few years have witnessed the maximum number of educational reforms being undertaken by the Government. The education targets set by the government have been hugely ambitious and aggressive by all means. The Government of India is now open to Public Private Partnerships (PPP) like never before, in order to achieve its goals. If we glance through the higher education sector, the government attempts to attain a GER of 30 percent by 2020, which effectively means reaching an enrollment figure of 40 million. It is estimated that an additional 33,000 institutions will be required, with an investment of `1,000,000 crores to accomplish this mammoth task. Even in the skills training field, the current national target is to skill 500 million people by 2020. However, with the present training capacity of India, it is estimated that we will be able to skill only 4.2 million per year. That leaves a gap of upto 10 times in achieving the national target! Attaining the said numbers would require colossal amount of investment and resources which the government alone cannot strive to achieve. In this, the PPP model has to be adopted with full force and vigor. The National Knowledge Network throws open tremendous possibilities for all solution providers in the education sector. The National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology (NMEICT), National Programme for Technology Enabled Learning (NPTEL) and related IT activities of the government have all emphasised on the involvement of the private sector to address educational concerns. The immense amount of research and development efforts undertaken by the private stakeholders and the diverse number of educational tools, if effectively deployed, would help put governmental efforts on the fast track. Today, India is a leader of the education sector. Partnership model would help actualise the educational priorities of the country, and also integrate the efforts of a large segment of education stakeholders into the developmental arena. With the amalgamation of the best of both worlds, education will only scale new heights in the coming years.
Dr. Ravi Gupta Editor-in-Chief Ravi.Gupta@elets.in
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inbox Advisory Board Prof. Asha Kanwar, Vice President, Commonwealth of Learning Dr. Jyrki Pulkkinen, CEO, Global eSchools & Communities Initiative (GeSCI) Subhash Chandra Khuntia, Principal Secretary to Government, Public Works Department, Government of Karnataka
This seems to be an interesting concept, although I have been through this idea some time earlier. Still I need detailed business model & feasibility study on it. I will appreciate if u may share from your experience. By Muhammad Yousaf Khan on Digital boards to replace blackboards in Kerala schools
Prof. V N Rajasekharan Pillai, Vice Chancellor, Indira GandhiI National Open University (IGNOU) Prof S S Mantha, Chairman (Acting), All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE)
President: Dr. M P Narayanan Editor-in-Chief: Dr. Ravi Gupta gm Finance: Ajit Kumar dgm strategy: Raghav Mittal programme specialist: Dr. Rajeshree Dutta Kumar
I think this is a fabulous way to not only provide immediate feedback to students but also to let the teachers concentrate more on teaching and less on correcting papers. By Pankhuri Nigam on news – ‘Schools to use Mobile handset for assessment’
Partnerships & Alliances: Sheena Joseph, Shuchi Smita, Juanita Kakoty, Ankita Verma Editorial: Divya Chawla, Rachita Jha, Dhirendra Pratap Singh, Pragya Gupta, Sonam Gulati, Shally Makin (editorial@elets.in) Sales & Marketing: Jyoti Lekhi, Fahimul Haque, Mob: +91-8860651632, Rakesh Ranjan (sales@elets.in) Subscription & Circulation: Gunjan Singh, Mobile: +91-8860635832 subscription@elets.in
Extremely helpful article, please write more in the education market in India. By Anonymous on Education Industry to witness a heavy influx of investments
What a joy to find such clear thinking. Thanks for posting! By Susie on news- ‘IGNOU ties up with MCIT to spread e-literacy at grassroots level’
Your article perfectly shows what I needed to know, thanks! By Margie on news on news“NIIT to enhance employability among youth”
This forum needed shaking up and you’ve just done that. Great post! By Boston on news-‘NCERT, NIOS submit proposal for 24X7 television channel’
Thank you for publishing our article here. If you want to know more about My Open Campus. By Arti Madan on news – ‘National School of Leadership adopts My Open Campus for Blended Learning’
Graphic Design: Bishwajeet Kumar Singh, Om Prakash Thakur, Shyam Kishore Web Development: Zia Salahuddin, Anil Kumar IT infrastructure: Mukesh Sharma, Zuber Ahmed Events: Vicky Kalra Human resource: Sushma Juyal Legal: R P Verma
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cover story
Virtual Labs
Virtual Environment for Real Learning K12 education, today, has come of age with the schools increasingly adopting technological solutions to make the teaching learning process engaging and interactive for students. Learning labs are playing an important role in this by providing creative modules that cater to diverse subject-specific needs. We highlight some of the key elements in Learning Laboratories and find out the perspectives of educationists and service providers on the importance of Learning Laboratories in today’s day and age By Pragya Gupta
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School education in India is undergoing a major shift from rote learning to blended learning with constructivist approach. The shift to blended learning methods leads to a joyful classroom environment and hence, generates desired experience and output. Learning is now not limited to cramming definitions, visiting physical labs once in a blue moon or learning complicated structures or formula with images printed on the text books. Today’s learning requirement centered on real life experience and here virtual labs offer conducive environment for learning. The interest and awareness for activity based and collaborative learning paradigms has made the concept of virtual labs even more exciting for learners and users. Learning based concepts, which were always a critical area for actual knowledge retention, are now getting high priority in school learning activities. There is a need for solutions that can blur boundaries between the classroom, the Lab and the outside world. Virtual Labs enable hands on experience and demonstrations using a simulated laboratory with the help of technology that are Internet enabled. Yet, adoption level is quite low due to lack of awareness, budgetary issues and unavailability of resources. It is expected to pick up at a very fast rate in the coming days. Schools, private or government, are now advocating the role and benefits of having labs in schools. The quality of software and their evolution is also driving this transition. Types of Lab Usage of interactive learning labs in India are now gathering momentum, with schools slowly but steadily accepting the fact that practical ‘learning by doing’ lab environments form the real methods of learning skills that are needed for a child’s evolution. Diverse range of labs are available in the market, which are also specific to the subjects that are being taught including Language Labs, Math Labs, Science Labs, and Arts Labs. Language Lab: Language lab has gained most prominence amongst all others, especially English Labs. English Labs enable teachers to focus on each child individually with numerous amount of activity based learning methods. It enhances student’s overall communication skills, which is very crucial for a child’s future. English labs are available in vernacular interface for various other Indian languages. Math and Science Lab: Mathematics and Science lab helps students to explore the concepts. Schools are now introducing math and science labs in their curriculum thereby making it a part of the regular time table where students sit in groups of four or five and explore the concepts. This has to be supplemented by a virtual component since many
“If best of lab technologies can be devised and used in school labs, this can make the biggest of differences in engaging the child through practical learning.” Kannan Bharadwaj Co-Founder and CEO, Math Buddy LLC Pvt. Ltd.
of the concepts in higher classes can be a lot more easily understood with the help of technology. The new age, interactive learning labs will go a long way in helping students develop interest and learn the concepts in the right way. It is a good alternative for the areas where the possibilities of creating physical labs with expensive equipments is not possible and it gives students an opportunity to have hands on experience on virtual environment. While learning maths, the learners must acquire skills on analysis, problem solving, critical thinking, decision making and data handling. While learning science, the learners should develop abilities like observation and investigation, exploration, deductive and analytical, correlation to real life environment, analysis, concept understanding, and use of it, to begin with. Currently, the market for math and science lab is very scattered with only a few players offering interactive math lab solutions. There is a huge market for labs, especially as more schools start recognising the benefits it can bring about. Arts Lab: Arts lab connects students with various geographies, cultures and social elements, which they read on books. It helps students to understand concepts in real terms. Use of modules in classroom learning helps students to visualise their lessons and travel through the deserts of Sahara or the Rain Forests of Amazon. Adoption Lab technology is very important in driving experiential education since the present generation students have access to the latest technology and are most attracted to game like solutions. When learning can become as much fun as playing a game, it can be one of the most natural ways of making them learn the basic skills needed for personal and social growth. Beyond gaming, technology can really help students visualize difficult concepts in Mathematics and this can eliminate the need for rote learning.
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School’s say Shemrock & Shemford Schools Amol Arora, Vice Chairman and Managing Director, Shemrock & Shemford Group of Schools shares the school’s experience in the use of Virtual Labs Shemrock & Shemford schools use virtual labs in Science and English teaching, and some online sites with virtual experiments. “We are using a number of virtual labs in our schools and we feel that they are a good resource for our schools for a number of reasons,” he says. Virtual Labs are good for situations where it is not feasible to conduct a real life experiment because the interaction, exploration, and experimentation with locations, objects, and environments that is unavailable, pricey, dangerous or impossible. Furthermore, virtual labs can present abstract ideas that may not normally or easily be viewed. For example, when learning about gas laws it may be hard to visualise what is actually occurring at the microscopic level, but with use of a simulation, the interactions can be made visible and tangible. In addition, if we talk about an actual lab, the time period for a class is 40 minutes in which children go from their class to the labs. This may lead to wastage of time. While performing a virtual lab rather then a “real world” lab, it allows students to make mistakes without fear of not getting the experiment done right. Also, virtual labs allow students to study at their own pace and the ability to repeat as necessary. Therefore, by using virtual labs, students can perform experiements that are messy, time-intensive, costly, or downright dangerous without the risk or expense. The net result is that students not only find the learning experience more enjoyable, they also performed better academically. However, I don’t think virtual labs will replace real life labs as real experiments give students the hands on opportunity to perform scientific reasoning, and to come to appreciate the complexity and ambiguity of the sorts of empirical work that scientists actually do. Therefore virtual labs will continue to supplement the real labs. With better technologies, more immersive technologies such as virtual reality will emerge with technology making the experiments more and real and as close to the real world experience as possible, thereby increasing its usage in schools.
New Era School From students’ and teachers’ angle Pradnya Gokhale, Academic Coordinator, shares, “Our students are thoroughly enjoying the virtual lab programme especially the challenge round (game round).They wait for that particular period in the week where we use Math Labs for teaching, which clearly shows that they like to solve different numerical activities in the programme. It also helps them to master their maths concept by doing the mastery level activities. For teachers it is easy to make worksheets and assign the students different activities in various concepts. It is also a very powerful tool that the teacher can make use of to introduce a concept in mathematics.”
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Kannan Bharadwaj, Co-Founder and CEO, Math Buddy LLC says, “If best of lab technologies can be devised and used in school labs, this can make the biggest of differences in engaging the child through practical learning.” The CBSE is taking necessary steps to come up with virtual labs, in which students can perform physics and chemical experiments several times over in order to help them understand concepts better. The schools have focused on adopting the new pedagogical techniques and integration of ICT tools as part of teaching-learning environment to transform the experience of education. With reforms being undertaken at the school level, learning labs have integrated these changes in order to help teachers and students cope with the advances. “The Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation has to be implemented in schools so that the students develop various life skills and 21st century workforce skills to enable them become employable and effective in their life. They should be conversant with the technologies in print, web, video and mobile technologies, which would enable them to be more efficient in the futuristic economy-an economy that supports knowledge and creativity. To implement such initiatives and achieve such objectives, the support of ICT rich environments is key,” says Hemant Sethi, President, School Learning Solution, NIIT Limited. Some key players in the sector • 24 X 7 Learning: 24x7 Learning partners with educational institutions to provide the intellectual infrastructure that is required to create enhance and maintain our intellectual capital base. • S Chand Harcourt: S Chand Harcourt offers Go Math in the suite of its educational products. The primary aim of a math lab is to engage students, strengthen their mathematical concepts and to also develop math skill and competencies. Go Math, has different activities - digital and hands on manipulative- which will help teachers use them at different stages of learning like concept introduction, consolidation and application. • Actuniv Group: WordsWorth English Language lab is designed to develop English language proficiency among the ESL learners of English as a second language. WordsWorth offers English learning programme that prepares the participant to communicate in English with clarity and confidence. • Clarity India Learning Solutions Pvt. Ltd: Clarity India Learning Solutions is a subsidiary of Young India Films, and focuses on Primary, Montessori and Secondary Education. Their products make the entire learning process fun and exciting
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pearson ad page 11
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Making Youth Employable with Language Proficiency
Chitra Bhatia
Country Head Sanako Corporation
Sanako Corporation specialises in language software. The company is redefining the way to learn languages, enhancing communication through high-end teacher-led Interactive language learning platform. Chitra Bhatia, Country Head, Sanako Corporation, in conversation with Pragya Gupta, talks on importance of English Language and company’s outreach for the Indian market. Excerpts: Please share details about the genesis of Sanako Corporation? Sanako is the global leader in developing teacher-led language teaching software and modern language labs. Sanako started in 1961 with the name Tandberg as a language lab producer. In 1984, Teleste acquired the educational division of Tandberg and in 1991, Teleste developed the word’s first computer controlled language lab. In 2003, Divace changed its name and launched the new global brand – Sanako. We have worked closely with our customers for nearly five decades towards
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a single goal: to enable better speaking, comprehension and communication skills for language learners. We have satisfied customers in over 100 countries and 30,000 classrooms. We already have 1100 class room in India in last one year, which is a significant number for us. We cater to higher education and K-12 segment, with our language lab solutions, be it Indian or international. For example, we are providing solutions for Kashmiri and Tamil at CIL and Chinese and English in ERA B-school. Our solutions can be used for any
teaching and learning languages. At Sanako, we give flexibility to teachers to pick and choose their content. We give the basic content with the flexibility to teachers to add the content. They can even pick up content from You Tube or the latest news paper. What are the key issues in language education in India? In India, there is a general trend of focusing only on reading and writing, and not the other important skills of language learning, like speaking and listening,
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which I see is a major issue. Also we have come across several other issues like most teachers in India complain that the strength of student is much more as compared to an average class room size in western countries. One of the most difficult things to do in a large classroom is trying to get the attention of every single student. It lacks an intimacy in students-teacher level. Teachers do not find time to interact personally with students and weaker students do not get personal attention. Nervous students may hesitate even to clear their doubts in front of such a large number of students. There is also the problem of inadequate space and lack of language learning equipments in the classroom, which does not encourage any fruitful communicative activities like role plays, group discussions and oral presentations. Unless there is a proper and systematic plan, it is going to create havoc in the classroom. The crucial challenges of language learning can be attributed to non availability of good and trained teachers, lack of good technology infrastructure, and content. What is the need of language learning in India? In India, only five percent of Indians understand English. As the links between people across the world grows, there is an increasing need for us to communicate in multilingual and multicultural equation. Knowing one of the world languages such as English becomes an increasingly important skill for an individual who wants to do well in today’s global market .With the IT revolution and most of software and operating system being in English language, a new utility for written and oral communication in English language has emerged. English is said to be the world’s most important language having communicative and educative value. A typical language lab consists of student desks that are equipped with media players, recorders or PC’s that enable activities in which students can practice their language usage by listening to audio and recording their speech. Every student’s device is connected
to a central console that stays with the teacher. Unlike in a traditional classroom, a student does not have to wait his or her turn to interact with the teacher and several students can establish interaction with their teacher simultaneously. This structure facilitates the active participation of students in the learning process and also allows both students and teachers to achieve the maximum amount of practice and usage time with the language they are learning. How do you reach your customers in India? In India, we reach our customers through HCL and Everonn. They are our strategic partners who represent us all across India. Beside this, we have smaller partners and region specific channel partners. Could you elaborate on your plans in India? Presently, it has been a mandate by All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) to have a language lab in all the AICTE approved colleges. However, in schools and colleges, it is still not a mandate to have a language labs. In five years, Sanako would like to make the Indian youth more employable by helping them improve their communication skills. We are working towards providing affordable, flexible interactive language learning technology solutions. Teachers training in language learning using technology and developing interactive language content suiting Indian market are among prime goals in our five year plan. We will be launching cloud based language learning solutions for ‘next gen language learning’, which will help students learn and practice language speaking even after the class. Sanako has launched a product called ‘Sanako speak’ which is a cloud based product. Besides building global community of language teachers, this can help teachers all across the globe learn from each other and share their knowledge back. Please throw some light on your tie-up with schools and colleges? We are working with some of the schools and colleges in Delhi, NCR including
Most teachers in India complain that the strength of student is much more as compared to an average class room size in western countries DPS Vasundara, DPS Ghaziabad, Era Business School, Delhi School of Language and JNU. We have also worked with Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Indore, Central Hindi Training Institute, Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL) Mysore, Maharashtra State of Technical Education, Mumbai, Bundelkhand Institute of Technology, Jhansi, Delhi School of Languages, The Cabinet Secretariat Government of India, Banaras Hindu University, Tamil Naidu State Board Schools, Amrita Engineering College, Coimbatore, Handa College of Education, Jammu, International School of Business and Media. Who are other players in this segment? What are the distinctive features of Sanako? We see Oreli Technosystems, ETNL - eTail Networks Limited, WordsWorth and Robotel as our competitors. We at Sanako offer Interactive Language Learning Environment. Our solutions are affordable and licensing system is flexible. Our latest technological solutions enable round table discussion for advanced learners and offer advanced tools for better results. Sanako’s solution features - multi-user collaboration, Sanako study examination module, Sanako study video live module, homework automation, subtitling, screen transfer with audio and marker tool, white board, remote access, and control of student PCs. They also include voting and live feedback, adjustable thumbnails in separate windows, hybrid labs, hardware labs and cloud computing.
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Key Focus While Designing Learning Labs • Develop activities based on lots of research on teaching methodologies adopted in different parts of the world. • Hands on manipulatives accompanied by detailed activity manuals and observation sheets to guide teachers and students. • Software component to be completely interactive and more game-like, so that students enjoy the learning process. • Unlike animations or videos, virtual activities are to be lightweight (in terms of file sizes) and therefore to be downloaded very fast over the Internet when accessing from homes. • Teacher training, hand holding and detailed documentation to ensure maximum usage in schools. • To keep it simple for teachers who are not very tech savvy. • Affordable solutions for schools. • Effort is to mimic real life as closely as possible to give the learner an immersive experience. A safe virtual environment allows for genuine exploration and capturing of subtle changes. Visual manipulation is an integral part of
design. • Labs should be used not just to verify concepts or validate concepts leading to forced conclusions, but should also be used as place to construct knowledge and create in the individual - the ability to think and analyse new concepts through experience and activity-based learning. They are also made available in the educational environment so that the learned theories can be tested and understood better using inquiry-based learning. • A few key focus areas are age appropriate and subjectappropriate pedagogy. It also revolves around proper instructional design designed after in-depth research of the subjects to enable learning of concepts with multiple explanations and examples. • The multimedia contents and ICT tools should enable all types of learners – auditory, visual and kinesthetic – to understand the concepts well. • Use of appropriate subject specific ICT tools which would cater to various levels of interactivity.
The CBSE is taking necessary steps to come up with virtual labs, in which students can perform physics and chemical experiments several times over in order to help them understand concepts better
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for the learner and focuses on concepts like ‘activity based learning’ offering high quality teaching learning material. Classteacher Learning Systems: Classteacher Learning System provides consulting and innovative technology solutions in the area of school education. Hey Math: HeyMath offers e-Learning programme for Math that has been supporting educators and students for 10 years. Liqvid eLearning Services Pvt. Ltd: LIQVID is specially known for its learning content development work in domains such as IT, Telecom, Publishing, and English Language Training (ELT). Liqvid has developed the EnglishEdge programme in association with BBC ACTIVE. Math Buddy: Math Buddy is focused on helping children understand math concepts through interactive activities. The company offers more than
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1000 colorful, interactive activities for elementary and middle school grades to help understand the basic concepts of Mathematics. NIIT Limited: NIIT Nguru is a holistic education solution for schools that utilises appropriate technology as backbone and encompasses all the possible components required to service the present and future learning needs of a school. The solutions from NIIT SLS has been developed after extensive research and by a team of academicians, subject matter experts and experts in various domains like technology, the education system, teaching pedagogy etc. The solution has been built keeping in mind different learning and teaching styles. It has also kept in mind the various education reforms and initiatives underway by the Government of India and various academic bodies. Sanako Corporation: Sanako is teacherled language teaching software and modern language lab development company. Virtual Eductechnica Pvt. Ltd: The Company is dedicated to promote innovation in the field of education. The company focuses on the development of new and modern solutions to initiate optimal teaching and learning. VISIONet Info Solution Private Limited (VISPL): VISPL is an e-Learning Solution provider in India and is e-Learning content development company since 1996 with focus on E-Learning. The company offers Multimedia Courses for Engineering, IT, Polytechnics, ITI, and Schools.
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classteacher ad page 15
Learning Solutions Digital Interactive Classrooms Formative Assessments Science, Math, English Labs iPerform – Extended Learning Environments
Community Platforms Virtual School Collaborative Learning Tools
Assessment Solutions The Assessment Center In–class Assessment Devices Skill Assessment Program (SAP)
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Solution Providers
What They Have to Say “Our solutions include the Language Lab, Digital Science Probes, the Maths Lab and the Assessment Centre. Each one of them is a cutting edge solution, which maps the relevant curriculum and creates a hands-on exploratory module. We have authentic assessments, which are inbuilt into the design of most of these Labs. We are working on creating adaptive learning paths which would allow for genuine personalisation.” Rohit Pande, Founder and Chairman, Classteacher Learning “We deliver English Language Lab - The digital content provides resource on all language aspects serving the needs of the Indian audience. The focus is on development of skills in functional usage of the language, grammar and phonetics besides vocabulary, remedy to regional influences, pronunciation and games. Learners need a practical approach to skill acquisition and a lot of practice. We also provide special content for the teachers of English and structured curricula besides Trainer manuals and the much needed Training of Trainers. The lessons are practical and represent common practices that are easier for the learner to relate to and comprehend.“ Jasvinder Singh, CEO, ACTUniv “To cater to the technology learning and IT enabled learning requirements of school children in the areas of Math and Science, NIIT had set up an Independent Business Group, School Learning Solutions (SLS) a decade ago. We have plans to come up with Labs focusing on Language skills development in the near future” Hemant Sethi, President, School Learning Solution, NIIT Limited
Labs should go well beyond what is taught in the classrooms. With technology advances, new generation students have access to a lot more information and they are hungry for exploring even more
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“We are focused on Mathematics and our products are designed to help teachers and students enjoy teaching and learning Mathematics in both the classroom and the lab. Our lab solution consists of both physical and virtual components, with both of them complementing each other very well. We have an excellent collection of manipulative to help hands-on exploration, supplemented by 1000+ virtual activities for teacher to use from the classroom or for students to practice from a lab. We have an online component also to help children continue to practice from their homes. It is a complete solution for understanding the concepts, practicing the concepts and an assessment module to gauge students’ understandings,” says Kannan Bharadwaj, Co-Founder and CEO, Math Buddy LLC says Rising Needs and the Future Since there is a shift today to constructivism (where in the learner is encouraged to create his or her own ways and arrive at his own interpretation and conclusions or analysis) and teachers playing the role of facilitators, learners would be required to provide with appropriate technological aids, which are probably mobile and possessing high degrees of interactivity. Also the strict demarcation as it exists today between theory and Lab sessions should be removed, and Labs should be an integral session of classroom teaching. It must also facilitate high degrees of collaboration and peer learning. The other key element with labs is the need for effective teacher training since all of these will be of no avail if the teachers are not comfortable in using the system. Ensuring high usage will only make a difference in students’ learning. Learning environments, which seamlessly blend the physical and the digital worlds with the student tablet as the interface need to be created. This would seriously create engaging learning experiences which could be interdisciplinary in nature. Labs should go well beyond what is taught in the classrooms. With technology advances, new generation students have access to a lot more information and they are hungry for exploring even more. Labs should provide an ideal platform for them to explore, experience and enjoy learning. Combination of hands-on and technology based lab gives an ideal learning environment with concepts in primary classes more suited for hands-on exploration and technology playing a major role in higher classes to visualize and understand concepts. Labs should also not restrict learning only to a room, and with advances in Internet adoption, students should be able to access the system from anywhere, anytime.
national news
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.
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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.
A comprehensive ICT products and services guide for the education community digitalLEARNING, India’s first and only monthly magazine on ICT in education sector, proudly announces the launch of the 3rd annual edition of the Education Resource Guide 2011 – the largest and the most exhaustive compilation of education technology products covering software, hardware, content, connectivity, gadgets, devices and instruments used by educational institutions.
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THE REACH • 18,000 Senior administrators in schools • 12,000 Decision makers in higher education institutes • 5,000 Senior officials in private educational organizations, government departments & NGOs Salient Features • Ready reckoner of technology products and solutions for educational institutions • Exhaustive listing of vendors across different products and solutions • One stop guide for education technology buyers Benefit to Advertisers • 1 Year shelf life (annual directory edition) • Wider visibility and reach among decision makers in the education sector • Stron brand presence and strategic positioning • Complimentary product profiling with matching page space • Maximum ‘return-on-investment’ Advertisers of Resource Guide 2010-11
For editorial queries contact: Pragya Gupta, pragya@elets.in, +91 8860651648 For advertising queries, contact: Fahim Ul Haque, fahim@elets.in; +91 9873277808 Jyoti Lekhi, jyoti@elets.in, +91-8860651634
Corporate Diary
Meena Ganesh
CEO and MD Pearson Education Services
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Corporate Diary
Providing End-to-End Education Solutions for K-12 sector Pearson Education Services has three main players including: Pearson, Tutor Vista and Edurite. Could you give us a brief background of the company? Pearson Education Services is part of Pearson, a global education, media and publishing group, represented by market-leading businesses such as the Pearson Education, Financial Times and Penguin. Pearson is the world’s leading education company that helps educate more than 100 million people worldwide - more than any other private enterprise. Pearson Education Services (PES) provides end-to-end education solutions in the K-12 segment, with a focus on technological innovations. Being a part of Pearson, PES aims to seamlessly combine content and technology and offer customised solutions of international standards to audiences not just in India but worldwide. TutorVista is a leading global online tutoring company set up with the aim of making education accessible and affordable to the masses. In a short time, it has grown to over 20,000 students in 27 countries, mostly in the US. In India, it offers a wide range of solutions and services in the K-12 segment, including ICT solutions for schools and colleges, e-content for supplemental education, learning centres for test preparation and vocational training – all through the Edurite brand, and school management services.
What are the diverse range of solutions being offered by Pearson in the school education sector? Pearson Education Services (PES) provides end-to-end education solutions in the K-12 segment, with a focus on technological innovations. Being a part of Pearson, PES aims to seamlessly combine content and technology
and offer customised solutions of international standards to audiences not just in India but worldwide. PES’s current market offerings include: School management services, by way of which they manage, operate and build high quality schools across the country that leverage Pearson’s global knowledge and expertise in the school space; on-line tutoring, that offers quality online tuitions to students across the world at very affordable prices; ICT solutions known as DigiClass, for both schools and higher education institutions by employing the DigitALly application; technology aided coaching classes and test preparation services for various Entrance (CET, AIEEE, IITJEE, AIPMT) and School/Board exams (State, CBSE, ICSE).
Could you elaborate on the EduriteONE, VSAT based Engineering and Medical Prep Programme, recently launched by Pearson? The EduriteONE, VSAT based programme is an initiative of Pearson Education Services. This is a two-way audio/video interaction that uses the latest technology to enable remote live classrooms, and incorporates comprehensive study materials with the aim of maximising students’ performance in State and National level entrance examinations. The live sessions are beamed from studios in Bangalore and other major cities which are equipped with the latest audio-video equipment for high quality video broadcast. The VSAT infrastructure, set up in various school premises at various locations, receives the signal and broadcasts it in classrooms in real time. Thus, it allows the students to receive answers to their queries from the subject matter experts immediately. An academic coordinator is also present in case the students have any doubts.
Educating 100 million people worldwide, Pearson Education is among the world’s biggest global education companies. In conversation with Meena Ganesh, CEO and MD, Pearson Education Services, Sheena Joseph finds out more about the extensive range of products and services being offered by Pearson and the latest trends in the education sector.
www.pearsoneducationservices.com
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Corporate Diary
Pearson Education Services provides complete training to teachers through the Teacher Training and Certification programme This programme breaks the barriers of location and affordability, making available world-class entrance exam coaching to students across all areas in the country.
Pearson Education Services has partnered with Government schools in Rajasthan for provision of ICTs in education. What are the other ventures of Pearson in the Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode? School education is the biggest thrust area identi-
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fied by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), Government of India and with Right to Education (RTE) becoming a fundamental right. We are also contributing our bit in this by engaging with the government in addressing school education needs. We provide end to end solutions in the school education space by deploying state of the art educational content and associated services. The domains that we are focusing within this space are primarily ICT Projects, SSA (Sarv Shiksha Abhiyaan) Projects, RMSA (Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyaan) Projects, multimedia educational content deployment and teachers’ training projects in government schools. We have closely worked with the Government of Karnataka in the prestigious Mahiti Sindhu Project where in we provided our services in 1238 government schools and have also engaged with the Government of Punjab and Sikkim in school intervention programmes with educational content deployment & investigative studies in order to improve enrollments in government schools. We are presently executing ICT BOOT project in 450 secondary schools and Computer Aided Learning Project (CALP) under SSA (Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan) in 1672 schools spread across 22 districts in the state of Rajasthan. Pearson Education Services has provided education solutions to well known corporate houses as well. We have successfully implemented their CSR initiatives in the Education space especially in rural India and have, through these projects, impacted over 12000 schools and over 1 million students. Yes, PPP is important in the current educational context because while the government has access, the private players can add a lot of value through their expertise and infrastructure.
What are your views on the extent of ICT integration on schools across India. Do you think that the government of India gives adequate importance to ICTs in Education? The K-12 sector is exhibiting a lot of promise and is expanding at a very good rate. Thus, this is the right time to invest. However, the rate of ICT integration across India is still a little slow and what we need right now is a combined effort along with the government. An intervention from the government, in terms of setting up government assisted schools would go a long way in reaching out to potential students through ICT in classrooms. Perhaps the 40% dependency on private institutions would also decrease, making way for the emergence of revered and respected government institutions.
Corporate Diary
Pearson Schools Launch VSAT EduriteONE Programme Pearson Schools recently announced the launch of EduriteONE; a VSAT based Engineering and Medical Prep Program to be implemented at one of its schools, Gyansagar International School in Sohagpur, Madhya Pradesh via a live link from its dedicated studio in Bangalore. Pearson’s EduriteOne is a remote delivery education service offering coaching for Entrance Exams and aims to help students engage in participatory sessions with peers and instructors, irrespective of their location. EduriteOne delivers sessions live to the school with state-of-the-art technology and a centralis ed monitoring system to track
class sessions and student feedback. Pearson Education Services, the parent company will facilitate the implementation of VSAT based programme and will provide students staying in remote towns and semi-urban centres access to the best faculty available in the country
How important is faculty training in the use of ICTs? Do you think that teachers’ in India are adequately trained in the use of ICTs? Faculty training is most important in the use of ICTs because these tools have been made to assist the teachers in the classrooms and not replace them. It is essential for them to be well versed in its use to ensure that the students benefit the most from it. Pearson Education Services provides complete training to teachers through the Teacher Training and Certification programme. With the objective of maximising benefits of the DigiClass solution to the school, we provide a comprehensive teacher training, assessment and certification programme, which leverages Pearson’s global education standards and techniques. Teachers can take the assessment exams online as well through the link that is provided. All those who complete the programme successfully are awarded with a Pearson certificate.
Does Pearson also provide services to the Higher Education sector? If so, could you elaborate further on this? Yes, Pearson Education Services does provide services to the Higher Education sector through our product DigiClass Pro. Right now, we are present in the Engineering field with plans to expand to Medi-
Meena Ganesh, on the occasion of the lauch of the programme said, “The EduriteOne programme will help us to reach out to students in tier 2 and tier 3 locations so that no child is left behind. The introduction of the programme at Gyansagar International School will make high quality exam prep coaching available locally in the institutions premises. EduriteOne for Pearson Schools is yet another initiative, which is in line with our vision of being a transformative learning enabler through innovative technology-led initiatives and we hope to provide a quality learning experience.”
cal soon. Over 50 Engineering colleges are currently using this solution. DigiClass Pro is a multimedia enabled teaching tool that empowers Lecturers / Professors to teach Subjects with multiple interactive aids, which in turn engages the students and creates interest thereby improving their understanding and retention which results in improved results. It is complete with comprehensive training to Lecturers/Professors on using ICT Tools and support services to guide the college in the introduction of ICT and adaptation of newer ways of Classroom teaching and learning.
With skills development being undertaken by the India government on mission mode, does Pearson have any plans of entering the skill development sector? Yes, Pearson Education Services is already actively contributing to the skill development sector by way of our Teacher Training and Certification Programme. While we are currently working with teachers who are part of schools that use our multimedia based ICT solution DigiClass, there are plans of furthering this initiative to a bigger scale, where we will extend this training to all teachers pan India. While this will benefit the teachers, empowering them to make concepts clearer and more memorable to students, the end benefit will be reaped by students.
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academia speak
“Learning Can not be Confined to Class Rooms” The Shiv Nadar University aims to create a centre of excellence in higher education, which will be at par with premier education institutions across the world. Dr Nikhil Sinha, Founding Vice Chancellor, Shiv Nadar University, in an interaction with Dr Rajeshree Dutta Kumar and Pragya Gupta, shared his perspective on higher education in India. Excerpts:
http://snu.edu.in/
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Can you give us details about the genesis of Shiv Nadar University? From the very beginning, our thought process has been into understanding the kind of education that can ‘deliver’ in 21st century in India. Till 2010, we were focusing on the type of university that we could build. Therefore, we visited the top educational institute of the world, not to duplicate their efforts, but to amalgamate best practices from global universities and to avoid pitfalls. Our University seeks to be a world-class institute, which would compete on merit with premier institutions of the world. The country needs many such institutes to cater to the large base of graduates and students passing out of school each year. Although India can be justifiably proud of having a robust education infrastructure, it has not uniformly kept in tune with the current Indian and global needs in higher education. Students who join Shiv Nadar University would not be the ones who are trying to win a rat race. We will not be churning out white collared workers for corporate houses. Students who come here will have a quest for knowledge, research and training.
How does the University plan its outreach in the coming years? We are going to set up a research-led multidisciplinary university in Uttar Pradesh, which will offer courses in engineering, social sciences, natural sciences, schools of business and other professional courses in due time. We will start admissions from this academic session itself and the total intake this year would be
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around 200-300 students. At the Shiv Nadar foundation, we have already brought social transformation into education. In addition, we have another emerging project of open school targeting a large number of urban students. We have a number of universities in India at every stretch but most of them do not meet global standards, which is a crucial requirement in today’s higher education scenario. Many institutes have come up in Noida, which offers good education, and where students can hope to be placed in good jobs after their studies. Several institutions like Amity and the India Institute of Planning and Management have now started establishing branches in tier-II cities, thereby providing good faculty and placements, which is helpful in meeting the increasing demand among students for quality education.
Shiv Nadar University treats knowledge in a holistic manner and creates opportunities for different kinds of interface between diverse disciplines. Could you tell us how this will be made effective? Everybody is talking about interdisciplinary education, but we find that hardly anybody is replicating it in their teaching and learning methods, because in most of the Universities, their faculty is established and you can’t force them in to this practice. There are issues, which we have already seen and we are trying to implement it in our universities. Bringing research in under graduate curriculum is another important focus for us. Early this year, we had two workshops in India with participation
academia speak
from eminent people from academia and industry from all over the world.
According to you, what are the essential pillars in education? What partnerships are there in your agenda? We think there are three essential pillars in education. First is research focus encompassing all- engineering and humanities subjects. We believe that research should be focused in all frontiers of knowledge. Secondly, academics being multi disciplinary and inter disciplinary is another important element for us. Delhi University is the best example of this. The design of curriculum must be interdisciplinary. We are going to launch our partnership with Mathematical Foundation. It is based on Mathematics in Information Technology. This reiterates our commitment to transform the way education is delivered in the country. Education should be participatory and engaging and also help ignite young minds by linking it to research and innovation and also to the needs of society. Similarly, nano technology is an essential part of all streams of science and technology. We are going to establish an institute in nano technology. Similarly, in psychology, the same concept is equally significant. The third pillar is new for India which revolves around the undergraduate programmes but globally it is already implemented. It is based on innovative under graduate programmes. We believe that there is a core set of knowledge, i.e., every student graduating from Shiv Nadar University must have core competency knowledge and it will cover basic concepts of all streams. There is a core common set of knowledge that covers social science, mathematics and other core curriculum. We feel that 17 and 18 year old students must be given an opportunity to energise and should be allowed to test their ability in different disciplines and they should not be forced into taking up any particular discipline. Another element that they must have are interdisciplinary skills.
How has globalisation affected the scenario of education? Is there any need of interaction with global academia for the students in the changing scenario? In a globalised world, nobody can afford to ignore global developments. We are building partnerships with the leading universities of the world. In today’s world, learning cannot be confined to the class room teachings, therefore, students should take up internships. They have to go out in the field and interact. It will enable engineering students to dabble in communication studies when they wish to, and Business
Finding the right faculty is a big challenge. We are looking for people who want to do things differently Management graduates to discover the joys of liberal arts. It’s the sort of eclectic, egalitarian mix which you would find only in educational institutes abroad. The Shiv Nadar University brings those choices, right up to your doorstep.
What are the micro and macro challenges in terms of faculty hiring? Finding the right faculty is a big challenge. We are looking for people who want to do things differently. We have already begun the process of recruiting top class talents for both faculty and administration of the University. Our goal is to recruit exceptional faculty, from India and around the world, by offering them competitive benefits, opportunities and resources for research, option to the best and brightest students to teach and a commitment to academic freedom. Students will have the opportunity to be taught by outstanding faculty, to participate in research and experiential learning programs, to enhance their degree programs with international educational experiences and live and learn in a campus with world class infrastructure and facilities.
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INDIRA GANDHI NATI Maidan Garhi, New Delhi
IGNOU Community College Initative
Making
a Mark
Across the Globe IGNOU to partner with US Community Colleges “The Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) Community College initiative is now finalizing a partnership with the well-established US Community College system through the latest Obama-Singh initiative 2011,” said Prof. V.N. Rajasekharan Pillai, VC, IGNOU. “With the introduction of the proposed National Vocational Educational Qualification Framework by the Ministry of Human Resource and Development (MHRD), the community college initiative would contribute significantly to the enhancement of the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) since it provides lateral entry to the university degrees,” he said. IGNOU started the community college initiative consisting of modular level education, hands-on training and work integrated learning leading to the award of certificates, diplomas, advanced diplomas and associate degrees. From there it expanded and the community college scheme of the university has picked up with the participation of diverse grassroots level organizations, both in the private and public domain in the country. Government departments like the information technology, rural development, textiles, technical education, Indian Army, Naval and Air force collaborated with the university in this nation-wide skill development initiative, leading to certification of employable skills and the enhancement of livelihood opportunities of the underprivileged sections of the society.
ONAL OPEN UNIVERSITY – 110068, India, www.ignou.ac.in Haryana government and IGNOU establishes community college Shri Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Chief Minister, Haryana, inaugurated the Indira Gandhi National Open University’s (IGNOU’s) Haryana IGNOU Community College, Institute for Competency Advancement of Teachers (iCAT) and a new teaching block at Government Polytechnic, Manesar. “Keeping on the tab of the number of polytechnics in Haryana, the state has seen immense growth in their number. The efficiency of both teachers and students are imperative for the state’s growth. We must ensure this type of mutual benefit arising from education so that the students get employment,” said the chief minister while inaugurating the community college. He also urged to start paramedical vocational programmes in the community college. “We started this scheme of community colleges under public initiative to chalk out a programme for skill development in the country. It is an autonomous society created by the university to provide vocational education, skill upgradation and training which will help the country to answer the problem of skill deficit,” said Prof. V. N. Rajasekharan Pillai, VC, IGNOU during the inauguration.
Under this collaboration between IGNOU and Haryana Community college, twenty new courses will soon be introduced on security, automobiles repair, fabrication, electrical, electronics, information and communication technology, printing, garments, fire safety management, water harvesting management, tourism and hotel management, foreign language (Spanish and French), paralegal, beautician, creative writing and communication skills, construction design, transport management and conductor training, retailing management.
State Focus
Tracking
SSA in Goa
The efforts of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan (SSA) are aimed at providing useful and relevant elementary education for all children in the age group of 6 to 14 years and to bridge social, regional and gender gaps, with the active participation of the community in the management of schools. In this article we focus on the educational efforts of Goa and explore the diverse range of activities being undertaken in the State under SSA By Pragya Gupta The mission statement of the Goa Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan emphasises on an urgent requirement for the appointment of trained teachers and provision of remedial teaching, improvement of school infrastructure, out of school children, children with special needs, and community mobilisation. The focus has been on increasing access, enrolment and bridging gender and social gaps. Retention, quality education and bringing back out of school children have been the key thrust areas. Activities of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan in the state has been working towards this direction. TRAINING ACTIVITIES IN CCE Carrying forward the steps towards implementation of
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the Right to Education Act in Goa, the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) designed a scheme of Continuous Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) to be enforced in all the primary and upper primary schools in the State from the academic year 2011-12. “Goa SSA has shouldered responsibility of imparting training to the heads of the upper primary and secondary schools in the state to actualise the step towards implementation of CCE in their schools. 400 heads of these schools were imparted one day training in CCE between June 20 and 28, 2011�, says Madhav Joshi, State Programme Coordinator, Goa SSA. Joshi further elaborates that presently, the Goa SSA has launched programmes through the Taluka Level
State Focus
School Complex Committees (TLSCCs). About 3500 teachers teaching in the upper primary schools will receive training. Following these programmes, authorities of the Goa SSA programme have planned to take up training programmes for the primary teachers in the State. Around 3000 teachers will be trained in near future. The senior teachers, experts and the headmasters who have already been trained contribute to the teacher training programme as resource persons. TEACHER TRAINING IN E-LEARNING PROGRAMMES The Sesa Goa – Vedanta Foundation initiated elearning programmes in the upper primary schools
in the State. Initially two teachers each from 295 upper primary schools were involved in the training programmes. Following the first phase of the training of these teachers in the last year when they were acquainted with the e-learning software developed by the Foundation and installed in each of the above schools, the teachers were invited for the second phase of the training programmes which commenced from July 18, 2011 in various centers. The Foundation has initiated steps to cover 91 additional upper primary schools in this year. The teachers undergoing training are acquainted with the software of e-learning and are exposed to computer skills. Sesa Goa-Vedanta Foundation’s E-learning
Visionary schools are the need of 21st century What are the key elements that make for the visionary schools of the 21st century? Visionary schools are the need of 21st century – schools that would provide relevant and quality education to all. The 21st century schools have integrated technological advances and our children have to necessarily cope up with this. Even if one teacher has a vision of creating a school that would empower positive change, that is enough to impact and bring about change in the teaching learning process. That is what will be truly visionary. We have seen that happening in our state, where a single teacher of a school handling 24 students has given new meaning to the teaching and learning process. The teacher has made the optimal use of the grant provided under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan and transformed the classroom into live learning centre. Every inch of the classroom is well utilised to transform into a live learning experience for students of the school.
What are the expectations of parents from schools of today? What parents are looking from schools is that schools should provide children with all innate abilities and transform them into capabilities to help meet the challenges of real life. Schools should help the child cope up with the requirements of the changing world with technological advancements and children should excel in all fields. Society is looking for schools that would transform students into becoming a responsible citizen of the country. To meet this aspiration of the parents & society there is a need to develop every school into a ‘Visionary School of the 21st century’. This is only possible through the vision of the school management team and education stakeholders of the society. School should provide an environment that facilitates the pursuit of academic excellence and all round development of the child. School should update their technological infrastructure and keep up with the ever changing educational environment. It should help stir the passion of the child, ignite the spark in the imagination & motivate the sense of duty.
Nagraj Honnekeri State Project Director, SSA-Goa What are the key leadership qualities that are required today? I really admire the words of Shiv Khera that “Leadership is a combination, not a key. A safe cannot open with a single number, you must use right combination of numbers to be able to open it.” Similarly one quality is not enough to make a leader. A leader must have a right balance of combination of vision, values, competence, courage and character. One without the other will not work. To imbibe these leadership qualities we need to focus on curriculum of teacher education, autonomy for schools & teacher education institutions, community ownership of the schools, free & flexible administrative set up, and a certain level of investment in school education.
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State Focus
The Community Mobilisation Cell designed detailed plan for orientation of all concerned in the areas of RTE implementation and other child related issues including those of out of school children programme is a joint initiative of the Government of Goa, Directorate of Education with Goa SSA which supports the programme under its Computer Aided Learning (CAL) intervention. 350 teachers have benefitted with the training and have found the initiative quite motivating. ICT INTEGRATION FOR QUALITY ENHANCEMENT OF LEARNING The Programme Approval Board (PAB) of the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), Government of India has approved the Goa SSA proposal of initiating Total population of Goa is programmes in inte13, 47,668 among which gration of Information and Technology (ICT) in 6,87,248 are males and day-to-day classroom 6,66,420 are females. processes under its Within this population, the Computer Aided Learning (CAL) Intervention total literacy rate is 81.75 for the year 2011-12. percent according to the Joshi adds that the Goa 2001 census, wherein SSA is preparing itself to organise the training male literacy rate is 88.17 of the Master Trainers percent and female literacy through national experts rate is 75.34. Among rural in the field. “Resource support will be sought population of 6, 77,091 from experts at NCERT people, rural literacy rate and IGNOU who will be invited along with the lois 79.65 percent cal experts in the field. The Quality Monitoring Cell of Goa Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan is working out details of the programme”, he says. RTE IMPLEMENTATION The Government of Goa has vetted the State Rules under the Right to Education Act (RTE) which still awaits notification. The Goa SSA has however taken steps to ensure that the admission norms are fol-
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lowed in all the schools particularly, for the out of school children who are required to be admitted to the age appropriate classes. The AIE Cell of the Goa SSA has been interacting with NGOs in charge of the erstwhile AIE Centers which would provide special training to the learners admitted to the age appropriate classes. Fourteen NGOs and two Madarsa Centers having their Residential (RBC) and Non residential (NRBC) centres in 50 different locations in the State are involved in this task and are associated with the SSA for monitoring their activities. EDUCATION OF THE CHILDREN WITH SPECIAL NEEDS (CWSN) Activities for education of Children with Special Needs are also being carried out at present. Medical assessment of the children with special needs is conducted regularly. Medical certificates are given to the children having more than 40% disability. The needy children are provided necessary aids and appliances. 1156 children with special needs are currently learning in schools while 4 children are being provided home based education. Presently, four Resource Teachers are employed with Goa SSA. They have received 20 days training as Multi Category Master Trainers at Aurangabad, Maharashtra. COMMUNITY MOBILIsATION AND TRAINING Following the introduction of RTE in the State, it has planned to develop awareness in the community, its leaders, heads of the institutes, teachers and parents on the child-related mandates of RTE and sensitise them on child rights and need of protection of the child’s rights. The Community Mobilisation Cell designed detailed plan for orientation of all concerned in the areas of RTE implementation, preparation of School Development Plan, implications of the CCE Scheme and other child related issues including those of out of school children. These programmes will be launched in the second fortnight of September 2011. RESEARCH AND EVALUATION In a joint effort of Goa SSA with Nirmala Institute of Education, the State took up a project called ‘All Can Learn’, which addresses the issue of slow learning. This project is monitored by one of the faculties at the Nirmala Institute of Education. First phase of the project is currently in progress. Teacher training programmes and development testing tools for their use in the classrooms have already been created. School Education in Goa will certainly see a move towards inclusion and excellence in the coming years.
higher education
The National Knowledge Network
Connecting Students to Learning Resources The Union Budget of the year 2011-12 specified the intention of the Government to connect major educational institutions across India with a high speed network that will enable the transmission and sharing of knowledge resources. The National Knowledge Network (NKN) will play a major role in taking quality education to distant and remote areas. The article highlights some key elements of NKN and its role in creating a knowledge society By Sheena Joseph
Higher education in India has figured in the priority list of the Government’s development agenda over the last few years. The ever increasing demand for quality education and the burgeoning youth population has necessitated the need to make educational resources available and accessible to all learners, irrespective of geographical barriers. Here is where the National Knowledge Network (NKN) will act as a major factor in dissemination of education to the masses. The efforts progressively highlights the considerable measures being taken by the government to integrate technology into education and the acceptance of ICT as a tool for change. The technology enhanced network is envisaged as a channel that will take knowledge resource to all, thereby breaking the barriers in education outreach. N K Sinha, Ad-
“…We are going to connect 26,000 colleges and 700 universities in the next two years... This also means that we need open source material... this poses a great opportunity for the IT industry.” Kapil Sibal Minister of Human Resource Development, Government of India
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ditional Secretary (TEL), Ministry of Human Resource Development, Department of Higher Education, Government of India is emphatic in pointing out the importance of technology, and says, “Technology is playing a very major role in providing the multiplier effect and in improving the Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER) in education. It has helped in quality enhancement efforts, ameliorating teacher shortage, taking care of the needs of the working population by providing access to education anytime, anywhere and teacher empowerment.” The NKN project will see massive use of technology to connect institutions of learning across India, and thereby putting to use the immense potential of ICT in education. The National Knowledge Network The main purpose of the National Knowledge Network is to encourage intensive research in higher education and to create institutions with high standards of quality, provide necessary research infrastructure and to encourage due training and development of faculty. The National Knowledge Network (NKN) has been envisioned as a state-of-the-art multi-gigabit pan-India network that will facilitate the provision of a common high speed network to higher education institutions of India. “The prime objective of NKN is to inter-connect all institutions of higher learning and research, for knowledge sharing and collaborative learning across the country, with a high speed network backbone. Each and every university, all national labs, CSR labs, and premier institutions like IITs and
higher education
medical colleges will be connected with high speed network,” says Dr B K Murthy, Director and Head of the National Knowledge Network Division of the Ministry of Communications and IT, Government of India All over the world, activities relating to research and development have involved a multi disciplinary approach, extensive collaboration and varied activities related to computation. In order for any research activity to succeed, sharing of data and resources is imperative. Consequently, in order to most favorably exploit the latent potential of institutions employed in creation and distribution of knowledge in diverse areas, it is vital to connect them through a high speed broadband network. The proposal of setting up a National Knowledge Network first gained momentum through discussions between the office of the Principal Scientific Advisor to the Government of India and the National Knowledge Commission. Crucial stakeholders including experts, users, service providers and educational institutions, came together and finally devised upon the concept of NKN. How it Works Elaborating on the actual operational activities in NKN, Dr Murthy adds that each connected campus will get a speed of 1 GBPS. “To build a scalable network, which can expand both in geographical coverage and speed, the NKN will be created as a common network like a national highway. It will consist of ultra speed high core network with a speed of 10 MBPS.” The network will consist of an ultra high speed core backbone with 10 GBPS speed and 1500 nodes, with each node being connected by around 1 GBPS. There will be a distribution node layer at appropriate speeds. The participating institutions will be able to directly connect to the NKN at speeds from 100 MBPS to 1 GBPS depending on the requirements. Currently the project is being implemented by NIC and is being executed by Department of Information Technology (DIT). NKN Design Overview The chief consideration for the overall design of NKN has been to construct an infrastructure that can extend and become accustomed to upcoming needs in education. The philosophy for the NKN design is to Encourage, Enable, Enrich and Empower the user community to experiment and put into practice ground-breaking ideas without any constraint from the network technology and its governance. On the basis of this philosophy, as the future generation network, NKN will accommodate the following features: Network Design: NKN blueprint is created in line with all the present standards to allow faultless inter-operability amongst technologies and seamless
“The prime objective of NKN is to inter-connect all institutions of higher learning for knowledge sharing and collaborative learning with a high speed network backbone” Dr B K Murthy Director and Head of the National Knowledge Network Division, Ministry of Communications and IT, Government of India
“It is an ambitious project and a good one also. Private companies will be required for providing the required technology platform and the content for such a massive project” Subramanian N Managing Director, TRS, Chennai
amalgamation amongst diverse unique equipment manufacturers. Security Requirements: Very strict safety measures are required to be drawn, executed and installed in order to keep the network alive, in wake of the increasing amount of security concerns reported by CERT and the rising problems faced by innovations in convergence. Any particular requisite for restricting right to use services should be deliverable as part of a security policy. The Central Command Control created to react to such situations should address till-date and anticipated attacks. Service Requirements: This requirements may vary between diverse service providers, and also between different tiers of a similar service. Service needs are essential for transparent delivery based on either heritage (as in telephony) or the general requirements for a particular service. Network requirements: These requirements are network-specific and can be tied to specific services, delivery mechanism (client could be variety of devices like PC/ PDA/ any other device) and access mechanisms like Intranet / Internet. The design will cater to the overall performance goal of the NKN infrastructure.
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higher education
Making Country-wide Classrooms A Reality
N Ravishanker
Additional Secretary, Department of Information Technology, MCIT, Government of India Could you provide us some details about the National Knowledge Network (NKN)? The NKN is a key infrastructure to connect institutions of research and higher learning across the country through a high speed bandwidth and fiber optic network. There will also be an overlay of the National Mission on Education through ICT (NMEICT) in regard to the content that will be used in NKN. Under NMEICT, there is a lot of content that is being created. This content will be further used by NKN
so that it can be broadcasted over the network to far flung institutions. For example, a typical good quality lecture taking place in IIT, Delhi may be beamed - in real time - to educational institutions in the North East or the rural areas. Those institutions where there may be a paucity of good quality faculty or there may not be enough learning material, the NKN will help mitigate this by taking classroom lectures to distant locations. This, in a way, leads to democratization of education through the medium of, what I would term as, a ‘country wide classroom’, where students who want to learn are not restricted by geography, accessibility to high quality content or lack of trained faculty. How is NKN going to affect the faculty at Tier 2 and Tier 3 institutions? Faculty in tier 2 and 3 institutions will act as interpreters and be able to actually upgrade their skills by using the network and thereby rendering their efficacy in teaching and learning practices to the successive generation of students.
Operational Requirements: The NKN is designed to cater to the requirements of tracking, troubleshooting, health monitoring, and proactive performance monitoring. With the converged network, it becomes more important to proactively monitor the network for impending issues. Content Generation for NKN Creation and dissemination of content will be one of the key aspects of the NKN. Several activities for creation of content are already underway in the auspices of the National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology (NMEICT) and National Programme on Technology Enabled
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The NKN will be in ease of use for all colleges in rural areas with the lecture beamed from premier educational institutions will be available right in their classrooms. It will also be subsequently made interactive so that students actually feel like part of a live classroom environment where teachers and students will be able to discuss and interact with each other. Will NKN also be extended to school education? As of now, NKN is only concentrated in higher education, because under NMEICT, we are interlinking 20,000 colleges, which will come under the network. The beneficiaries, in the initial stages, will be colleges and higher education institutions, but since the network is ubiquitous, the school education stakeholders can also join in gradually. Technically speaking, there is no such restraint. The school education system will have to create a common courseware so that it can also be shared or beamed among the K12 segment through the medium of the network.
“Effective use of ICT will play an important role in bridging the digital divide... The propagation of education through leveraging ICT would empower and equip young Indians” Rahul Sharma Head-System Integration Business, Sterlite Technologies
higher education
UNLEASHING
CHANGE partner publication d page 35
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higher education
“Technology is playing a very major role in providing the multiplier effect and in improving the Gross Enrollment Ration (GER) in education” N K Sinha Additional Secretary (TEL), Ministry of Human Resource Development, Department of Higher Education, Government of India
“There are numerous players in this sector who have invested thousands of man-years in Research & Development. Partnering with such global leaders can only be termed as a win-win situation” Sajeev Karuthody Director-Special Projects, Edutech India Pvt Ltd
“Private companies could also provide operational, maintenance and portal management support apart from working on linking content providers and users” Ashwin Desai Managing Director, A & T Network Systems Pvt. Ltd.
Learning (NPTEL). Sinha points out that apart from the supply side for creation of content, there is also a strong demand factor that is creating a massive need for creation and sharing of common educational content. The content so created should not just be that of scanning lecture notes, but also should include animations and simulations which will be created by the community of experts. “eContent needs to be free for every learner, not just in India but also, across the globe. This means that efforts have to be intensified
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for generation of open source content. It should also have international participation in order to ensure diversity in content,” says Sinha. Kapil Sibal, Minister of Human Resource Development, Government of India reiterates, “We in India are concentrating on delivery and not on content. So we may have another 500 million mobile phones and broadband in place which connects every village and district but if we do not have the content, then it’s of no use. We must shift our emphasis towards creating IT solutions. It is much beyond just cyber security or disaster management…the entire developmental process is baseless without content. We are going to connect 26,000 colleges and 700 universities in the next two years through the National Knowledge Network. This also means that we need open source material and content to actually empower the students…this poses a great opportunity for the IT industry.” Role of the Private Sector The NMEICT and NKN projects are looking towards strong public private partnerships for creation of quality content and network for education. A lot of content generating activities are already happening in the private sector. Content development is a specialized area and requires certain intricate skill sets. While academic institutions may have the requisite subject matter experts, they will not have ready access to skilled instructional designers, visual designers, technical designers, and usability experts. This is crucial to create content that is uniform, re-usable and is of international standards. “NKN is an ambitious project and a good one also. Private companies will be required for providing the required technology platform and the content for such a massive project,” says Subramanian N, Managing Director of TRS, Chennai, emphasizing on the role of the private sector in the NKN project. Quality and innovative solutions will have good demand in this market. He highlights that online products like e-Assessment with provision for objective and subjective testing along with a comprehensive question bank software will be ‘the Solution or Platform’ for such a project. Also products in video interaction, video conferencing, live classes and live interaction will be in demand, he adds. “Private companies could also provide operational, maintenance and portal management support apart from working on linking content providers and users”, says Ashwin Desai, Managing Director, A & T Network Systems Pvt. Ltd. Sajeev Karuthody, Director-Special Projects, Edutech India Private Ltd is of the opinion that private companies that specialize in providing e-learning
higher education
NKN to Promote Foreign Collaborations
Dr Ekta Singla
Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering & Nodal Officer, NKN, IIT Ropar
Could you elaborate on the NKN activities undertaken at IIT Ropar so far? The network has proven as a great facility in bridging the gap between our students-requirements and the knowledge providers, which was very important during the first couple of years of establishing a new institute. Experienced professors from old-IITs
are contacted through NKN for expert lectures. The network is usually used for receiving educational and inspirational talks from eminent personalities both from Indian and foreign universities. It is planned to broadcast workshops on specialized and advanced topics for the interested teachers and industrial people, through NKN. You need not fix particular number of seats for the recipients! What have been the key achievements of the project? Besides the routine use of NKN in knowledge-sharing, it is used as a great tool in establishing foreign collaborations. The high-definition VC systems and data-sharing facilities are expected to catalyze the important processes of establishing and executing common research platforms. How is NKN going to promote research in education? Education - right from the elementary
solutions have a definitive role in this initiative. The government needs to understand that e-learning is a specialized sector and that the government only stands to benefit by leveraging on the expertise of private companies. “Instead of re-inventing the wheel, the government can partner with private players who specialize in providing world-class, time-tested, robust and scalable enterprise-class systems that can assist in reaching the project objectives.” There are numerous players in this sector who have invested thousands of man-years and millions of dollars in Research & Development of e-learning solutions. Partnering with such global leaders can only be termed as a win-win situation, he says. Subramanian adds, “New companies are also gearing up for content creation. The requirement is of quality content and quality presentation. It is only
school level to higher levels - shapes a human being and the quality of the tools used during this process is reflected in the final outcome. NKN may be considered as one exclusive tool which is required the most in integrating experts from different fields and in providing a platform for the best education in interdisciplinary fields. Secondly, NKN is a solution for effective distance learning for people residing in remote locations. What is the potential impact of NKN on education across India? India is a land of enormous variety and talents. NKN, a bonding between all the premier institutes across the country, provides a platform to share/avail knowledge in medical, agriculture, engineering and other fields. In a way, it is difficult to make an excuse of how to reach and how to teach. All one needs is his will to educate. We can use the network to connect the sources and the needy.
a matter of time that such products will be available.” Rahul Sharma, Head-System Integration Business, of Sterlite Technologies says, “The effective use of ICT will play an increasingly important role in bridging the digital divide between urban and rural India. The propagation of education through leveraging ICT would empower and equip our young generation of Indians. This would help in the enhancement and overall sustainability of the Indian economy.” Sterlite, a global provider of connectivity solutions for the power and telecom industries, was recently roped in by Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) to enhance its network for promotion of higher education in India. In an effort to connect 120 universities, Sterlite plans to connect 30 universities during FY12, and would connect the remaining 90 universities by FY14. The company would manage the network for
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india’s Largest ICT Event conference
awards
exhibition
15 - 17 december, 2011 Mahatma Mandir, Gandhi Nagar, Ahmedabad, Gujarat
www.eINDIA.net.in
Steering e-inclusive economy Centre for Science, Development and Media Studies (CSDMS) and Elets Technomedia - the publisher of the eGov, eHealth & digitalLEARNING magazines - invite you to join eINDIA 2011 - the seventh edition of India’s largest ICT event. The innumerable initiatives in terms of public policies, programmes and projects rolled out for the inclusion of the vast disadvantaged population of the country are all exploiting the power of ‘e’. The advent of ‘e’ is being considered as the panacea of efficiency & delivery of public
services. eIndia 2011 would therefore hover around the theme of steering an e-inclusive economy which is being held in the growth capital of the country. eINDIA 2011 would be a platform for sharing knowledge, assessing the already existing initiatives, and planning the creation of technology enabled society. eIndia 2011 expo would showcase various innovative ICT products & services in the domain of Governance, Healthcare & Education. It would help explore the diverse opportunities of integrating ICT in different spheres of life.
eINDIA has been an excellent platform for bringing together stakeholders to exchange ideas and to get to know the possibilities of new innovations that have come into the field of technology.
I congratulate the CSDMS and Elets team for organising an event that would go a long way in helping the country achieve the Millennium Development Goal objectives of education and health
Conferences like eINDIA have the potential to create awareness about the stupendous possibilities that e-governance harbours within itself in the context of governmental activities.
Smt D Purandeswari Minister of State, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India
Prof V N Rajasekharan Pillai Vice Chancellor, Indira Gandhi National Open University
Subhash C Khuntia Principal Secretary, Government Public Works Department, Karnataka
Delegate Profile It has been quite a spectacular journey and has always been an outstanding show growing from year to year. Shri R Chandrashekhar Secretary, Department of Information Technology & Telecom, Ministry of Communications & Information Technology, Government of India
I have seen eINDIA from its inception and thereafter growing like an institution in itself. I congratulate the eINDIA team for its tremendous effort in putting together this outstanding conference. R S Sharma Director General, UIDAI
Secretary-level Officials such as head of various departments, Chief Secretaries, Principal Secretaries, Additional Secretaries, Joint Secretaries, Deputy Secretaries and Directors from Central and State government departments Key officials from IT, Health, Education, Urban Development, PWD, Agriculture, Rural Development, Home, Planning, Power, Finance, Transportation and Taxation departments and institutes from states and central ministries
Why
Key stakeholders and elected representatives
Meet & Network with
Key decision makers from educational institutions - VCs, Registrars, Principals, Directors and Heads of organisations
participate?
key decision makers & experts, bureaucrats & policy makers, leaders & stakeholders, service providers & IT vendors, telecom vendors & consulting firms, ICT entreprenuers & NGOs on innovative e-Gov implementations, government agencies & developmental organisations in the domain of ICT for Governance, Healthcare & Education
Engage with colleagues and experts handling similar ICT projects, dealing with transformation and GPR challenges, working on automation of back office processes and integration.
Benefit from extensive & in-depth conference sessions on more than 50 thematic areas in the field of e-Governance, e-Learning, eHealth, eAgriculture and Telecentre.
Key officials from Districts and municipalities Representatives from the judiciary and legal experts Key people from various chambers of commerce and associations Industry representatives and experts
Witness
Representatives from NGO and other civil societies
innovative solutions from within the Indian ICT industry and beyond in the eINDIA exhibition which will showcase cutting edge developments in ICT.
Consultants and research agencies
Sponsorship & Exhibition Enquiries eGov Track: Digital Learning Track: Fahim Haq, fahim@elets.in, + 91- 8860651632 | Jyoti Lekhi, jyoti@elets.in, +91-8860651634 | eHealth Track: Rakesh Ranjan, rakesh@elets.in, +91-8860651635 For General Enquiries: info@elets.in, +91-120-2502181-85 organisers
co-organisers
presenting publications
news
business
Sterlite Technologies to Enhance Connectivity in Higher Education
Sterlite, a leading global provider of connectivity solutions for the power and telecom industries, announced that it has been chosen by Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) to enhance its network for
promotion of Higher Education in India. The scope of the project includes establishment of world-class connectivity for 120 universities across the country. This infrastructure would act as an information backbone, enabling every university in the network to function as an Euniversity. This platform would facilitate high bandwidth data transmission that is essential for e-learning and video- based learning. Sterlite would connect 30 universities to this backbone during FY12, would connect the remaining 90 univer-
NIIT Tech acquires Spanish firm Proyecta Sistemas for $7m, stock gains 3%
NIIT Technologies acquired Spainish software services firm Proyecta Sistemas de Informacion SA for for USD 7 million. “We will end up paying 70% of the revenue (for acquisition) which is USD 7 million,” Arvind Thakur, CEO, NIIT Technologies, said. He said the company
had revenue of USD 10 million in last financial year and has EBIDTA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortisation) of 10%. “From today we will start consolidating revenue of Proyecta with NIIT Technologies,” Thakur added. The acquisition
enables NIIT Technologies to enhance its European footprint with Proyecta’s experience in travel and financial services segments. NIIT Technologies’ Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) operations contribute 35% to its global revenues. Headquartered in Madrid, Proyecta, with over 100 consultants that industry players in business intelligence, web and mobility applications. Shares of NIIT Technologies closed at Rs 196.25 on 16 August – the date of the acquisition, up by 2.53% from previous close on the BSE.
Educomp and Sri Kanchi Kamalkoti Peetam announce tie up Educomp Solutions through its subsidiary Educomp Infrastructure & School Management has entered into a joint venture with Sri Kanchi Kamalkoti Peetam to set up a 100 strong chain of schools across the country.
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sities by FY14 and would manage the network for five years thereafter. Sterlite has streamlined its efforts to implement the network well within the required project schedule. This project is part of the ‘National Mission on Education through Information and Communication and Technology (ICT)’ undertaken by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), Government of India. The Mission has been envisaged to leverage the potential of ICT, in teaching and learning process for the benefit of all the learners in Higher Education Institutions in any time anywhere mode.
Everonn Plans Rs 150 cr Capex Chennaibased VSAT education network company, Everonn Education Limited, has plans of investing close to Rs 150 crore in the present fiscal. Also, the company plans to venture overseas to include countries like Africa during the current fiscal year. P Kishore, MD, Everonn Education Ltd has said that the company would invest Rs 150 crore in iSchool and Instructional and Communication Technology (ICTs). The iSchool model is an initiative of the company which combines the orthodox system of learning with digitised content and tools to make learning interactive. The suggested investment will be funded mainly through debt, said Kishore. Till now, the company has been working with close to 16 states to enable ICT based education on government run schools. Kishore highlighted that out of the Rs 301.62 crore revenue of the company during year-ended March 31, 2011, 22 per cent were contributed by government projects. The company has set a target to increase its topline by 50 per cent during the present fiscal, he added. The company has reported a 43 per cent rise in its revenues in 2010-11.
business news
Aptech Ltd bags award in Vietnam Aptech Ltd. a global leader in education & training solutions has been conferred Top ICT Training Cup for leading the IT training and education domain in Vietnam for the 9th consecutive year by the Ho Chi Minh Computer Association (HCA), Vietnam - the first IT association in Vietnam. Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Ninad Karpe, CEO & Managing Director, Aptech Ltd., said, “This award is an
appreciation of Aptechs effort to provide Quality IT training in Vietnam. It is a true honour as it recognises our cutting edge Technology, Curriculum, Quality Systems & Processes and Innovative Methodology. We have always endeavored to impart the best of industry relevant training to students across the globe and feel proud to see graduates from Aptech engaged by top IT compa-
nies in Vietnam. Going forward we plan to open a total of 50 centres in Vietnam in the next two years. “ Aptechs venture into Vietnam, started with 2 IT Education Centres under its flagship brand, Aptech Computer Education (ACE). This IT & Computer training brand, has scaled up the Vietnam operations to 44 Centres, offering different courses.
Singapore Management University and Tata Consultancy Services Announce Creation of iCity Lab Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), (BSE: 523540, NSE: TCS), a leading IT services, business solutions and consulting firm, and the Singapore Management University (SMU) announced the establishment of the TCS-SMU iCity Lab to be located at SMU. The collaboration agreement signed states the two organizations are partnering to create a new research facility to develop industry standards and IT frameworks for the emerging intelligent
city (“iCity”) model of urban development. TCS will initially directly invest S$6 million in the new TCS-SMU iCity Lab over the next three years. The investment provides scholarship funds for SMU postgraduate students in Informa-
tion Systems Technology & Management, and research funds for SMU faculty. In addition to the direct investment in the iCity Lab at SMU, TCS is supporting the initiative under the TCS Co-Innovation Network (TCS COIN™) initiative, with collaboration from its global network of Innovation Labs. The iCity Lab is be located within SMU’s School of Information Systems (SIS), and will draw on faculty from SIS as well as from the other parts of SMU.
IGNOU and Aditya Birla Group Sign MoU The Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) has inked pact with the Aditya Birla Nuvo Limited’s wholly owned subsidiary Madura Fashion and Lifestyle Limited to impart necessary skills and training in garment stitching to the community members who are unemployed/ under employed and are residing mostly in the rural, suburban and disadvantaged locations. According to the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) both IGNOU and Madura Fashion and Lifestyle Limited will launch three
Short Term Non Credit (STNC) courses namely: Basic Certificate in Garment Stitching for one month, Advance Certificate in Garment Stitching for two months and Advance Certificate in Garment Stitching and Quality Control for two and a half months. All of these programmes will be coordinated by IGNOU’s Regional Center of Delhi-1 at Mohan Cooperative Estate. The MoU was signed by the Registrar of the university U.S. Tolia and R.S. Balasubramanyam, Head- Corporate Social Responsibility, Aditya Birla Group in the presence of Prof. V.N. Rajasekharan Pillai, VC, IGNOU, in the board room of the VC’s office of the university.
Core Projects renamed as Core Education The leading global education solutions provider will now be rechristened as Core Education and Technologies Ltd. Sanjeev Mansotra, Chairman and Global CEO, CORE Group said: “CORE Education and Technologies Limited means a lot to us and it is not merely a new name. Reflecting its increased thrust on education, CORE Projects & Technologies Ltd. announced a change in its name. Announcing the name change, Sanjeev Mansotra, Chairman and Global CEO, CORE Group said: “CORE Education and Technologies Limited means a lot to us and it is not merely a new name. It reflects our commitment to the growth of education in the country since we firmly believe that an educated India will be able to take on the world with great confidence as it dares to dream to emerge as an economic super power by the year 2020.” CORE has emerged as a major force to reckon with in the rapidly growing education sector with its presence in over 9000 schools panIndia in about a year’s period. With quality as its mantra, CORE has made major strides in education thanks to its management, operational, and technical capabilities. Globally, CORE caters to over 85,000 schools across 20 State Governments in US, 40 Educational Departments in UK, 9 African countries and 12 State Governments in India, touching lives of more than 31 million students.
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mlearning
New Pedagogy through
Mobile Technology for Parents with Special Needs Children Mobile technology has come to be used extensively across the world. The article features the use of mLearning in Malaysia for various purposes, including those of addressing the needs of parents with special needs children. The DHH Mobile Project of Universiti Sains Malaysia uses the technology to ‘bridge’ education divide by providing extensive research for Deaf or Hard of Hearing (DHH) children By Dr Issham Ismail, Universiti Sains Malaysia Approximately 90 to 95% of Deaf or Hard of Hearing (DHH) children are born to hearing parents who know very little about deafness and its diagnosis or impact on the child development. It is axiomatic that the hearing parents of these DHH children need as much information as possible to help them to deal or cope with their children. Hearing parents of DHH children may experience many challenges and obstacles that affect multiple areas of family life. There are four domains of family life namely the interactions, resources, parenting and support services, that have been noted to be highly impacted by deafness. Parents need to find adaptive ways to cope with these demands in their family life, which in turn will promote their own adjustments and functioning as parents of DHH children. In line with these demands, a research was conducted by Hintermair in 2006 to promote human strengths and parents’ quality of
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life. Hintermair found that shaping an effective training by the healthcare professionals’ is vital to identify factors that promote successful coping with the demands faced by parents of a child with a cochlear implant (CI). Similar scenario is expected in the case of parents to DHH children. In Malaysia, there are very few hearing parents who know about deafness and its impact on the child language and language acquisition development. Most of these parents are either ignorant of the importance or do not have access to information. Thus, the DHH Mobile Project was initiated by mobilelearning@ usm, a part of Universiti Sains Malaysia, in August 2010 to fulfill the needs of hearing parents of DHH children in terms of basic sign language. As such, these parents are able to interact effectively with their improved knowledge in basic sign language. The objective of the project has been to introduce educa-
mlearning
tional pedagogy for parents of special needs through DHH MMS. A pilot study was conducted on the parents of DHH students in Federation School for the Deaf, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia. At the beginning stage of the project, parents were asked to rate their level of knowledge on the basic hand sign language and their consent was gathered to sent MMS messages. The MMS content of the basic hand sign language included the alphabets A-Z and numbers 1-9 which was to be transmitted using an in-house interactive system. This study had been performed for 3 months among the normal parents whereby MMS content was loaded into the system for a scheduled delivery on a daily basis. Recent advancement in mobile technology has given a boost to many sectors and services which includes the education sector. Mobile technology applications provide unique opportunities for both learners and educators, by providing greater flexibility, thereby enabling education to take place anytime, anywhere and by anyone without boundaries. Therefore, mobile technology serves as a new pedagogy for parents with special needs children. Attractions of Mobile Technology Some of the special features that have made the technology more innovative are its easy access and affordability. The mobile phone technology can be utilized anytime, anywhere and anyone for DHH purposes. The mobile technology provides an opportunity for a short piece of information to be delivered to the students or parents without the constraint of space and time. The DHH Mobile Project has been used to help parents in accessing content (sign language) and learning materials, assisting parents of Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH), and improve interaction between parents and children. It has provided a platform for sign language educators for dissemination of information and knowledge to the public. Users also have the option of browsing through the archives at their convenience. How Mobile Technology Scores Among Users Several previous research studies have encompassed preliminary study on the acceptance on mobile phone usage and SMS-learning amongst distance learners. Presently, the team at USM has focused on 2 main cohort of mobile learning which are formal and informal pocket education. Formal Pocket Education embraces System Pocket Education which proposes a mobile platform via Pocket Education. It provides mobile learning services which suit the requirements and needs from various users,
particularly for university subjects. The project also explores the awareness of mobile learning system in education world among IPTA’s in Malaysia. Linguistic Pocket Education plays a vital role in identifying the communicative functions of SMS messages which are important to be employed in SMS learning from the perception of USM students and instructors. On the other hand, Value Added Ser-
Mobile technology applications provide unique opportunities for both learners and educators, by providing greater flexibility, thereby enabling education to take place anytime, anywhere and by anyone without boundaries vice (VAS) is used to design and develop a SMS system to support teaching and learning which will track the navigating behaviour of students using SMS as a learning tool. In this cohort, project on the special education needs is focused in identifying the level of knowledge in sign language among the normal parents of deaf students before and after using the mobile learning. Users receive their messages upon registration via the DHH Mobile site by using their respective hand phone numbers. The DHH Mobile management unit is fitted with multi-provider slot to cater to the different lines subscribed by the users and thereby reducing the cost of delivery Apart from receiving messages, users have the option to browse the archives at their convenience. Users are also able to pose a question via the hand phone that will appear in the management site for the attention of the Sign Language Educator. The programme consists of a web-based management unit that was home-grown and can be offered on a trial period. The second cohort explores informal pocket education merely by addressing aspects on Islamic, sustainability and health issues. Sustainability issue is also a focus in this project on examining the awareness of communicative functions of SMS messages which are important to be employed in SMS learning from the perception of USM students and instructors. The project involves health education which is crucial on postnatal care by providing SMSs to new mother’s on physical and mental information during the confinement period.
www.usm.my september / 2011 www.digitallearning.in
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Building capacity | Connecting people | serving citizens Driving Economy | breaking barriers
1-3 December 2011
Bangabandhu International Conference Center, Dhaka, Bangladesh
organisers
co-organisers
www.e-asia.org a2i programme
in association with
Bangladesh Association of Call Center & Outsourcing
partner publicationS
Realizing Digital Nation eASiA 2011, with the slogan Realizing Digital Nation, is an annual international Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) for development event with the objective of reinforcing technology and knowledge-centric growth and needs of Asia vis-à-vis Bangladesh, through capitalisation of market economy and boosting human development. This event commemorates the 40th birth anniversary of Bangladesh and celebrates the progress of Digital Bangladesh agenda
of the government. Digital Bangladesh by 2021 vision is a 21st-century globalized-world form of a vision of equitable prosperity portrayed by the founding father of the nation 40 years ago. Since then, Bangladesh has made significant progress in human development index and ranks third in the world. Conference Highlights: Plenary and technical sessions, Focused workshops, Seminars, Discussion round tables, Debates & more ...
Exhibition: Showcasing projects, programmes, Government Initiatives, Initiatives by Private sector agencies/ corporations, Demonstrating innovative ICT products, solutions and applications, etc. Target Audience: Policy-makers, Senior government officials, Industry leaders, International development, agencies, Civil society, Academia, and Investors, etc.
It is our pleasure to announce ‘call-for-papers’ for the eASiA 2011- Asia’a Premier ICT Event. The papers should be based on, but not restricted to, the following themes: 1. Building Capacity 2. Connecting People 3. Serving Citizen 4. Driving Economy 5. Breaking Barriers Selected papers will be given an opportunity to present at the eWorld Forum 2011 • Last date for Abstract Submission: 20th September 2011 • Notification of Acceptance of Abstracts: 1st October 2011 • Last date for Full Paper Submission: 20th October 2011 • Notification of Acceptance of Paper: 1st November 2011
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Vocational Education and Skills Training
Case Study
Skills Training for ITeS in South Africa: A PPP Model www.niit.com
The Public Private Partnership Model has evolved as a key requirement for sustainable and scalable developmental programmes. With skills training becoming an important requirement to cater to the needs of the rapidly growing economy, the featured case study demonstrates a method for effective skills training programmes through collaboration between NIIT, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the Government of South Africa
By Ajai Manohar Lal, Chief Business Officer, Individual Learning Solutions - IT (International), NIIT Skill development in the IT Industry has assumed great importance on account of the massive shortage of manpower in this sector. The National Skill Development Corporation has listed the IT and IT enabled services (ITeS) Industry as the one of the key growth sectors that would face severe manpower crunch if adequate arrangements are not made to train human resources. According to the reports of IDC, NASSCOM, close to US $ 1.7 trillion is spent on hardware and IT related services and this spending has been growing at more than 7 percent Compund Annual Growth (CAGR). It is anticipated that IT Services will grow at a CAGR of 6 to 7 percent till 2012 and ITES is expected to grow at 10 to 12 percent over
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the same period. Several private industry players in the skills training sector have entered into the training field in order to cater to the manpower requirements. This need is not only limited to India but also in various other countries. One of the innovative initiatives in this field has been that of the Department of Economic Development and Tourism of Kwa Zulu Natal – South Africa, NIIT and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) who had entered into an agreement on 1st August 2008 to train 10, 000 under privileged young people in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) skills in over five years.
Vocational Education and Skills Training
The Background The scarcity and inadequacy of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) skills were emphasised at the Presidential International Advisory Council on Information Society and Development meeting in August 2007 and both corporate leaders and the South African Government expressed concern in this regard. The members supported the initiative to establish the e-Skills Institutes in the country as the scarcity of ICT skills in South Africa was negatively impacting economic growth and development. The charter re-affirmed its position on the need to fasttrack ICT skills development and suggested a more direct engagement with local and international corporate partners. This led to the conception of this skills development initiative involving multiple partners from Government, Academia and Corporate Sector and establishment of Software and Business Process Outsourcing institute. The institute seeks to provide strategic leadership on economic development and creating conducive conditions for sustainable growth and development with specific strategies to address diverse issues. It also would facilitate the support for high impact projects and strategic local economic empowerment initiatives by leveraging appropriate resources, resulting in the retention of current jobs and the creation of sustainable quality jobs and empowerment in both the first and second economies. It will be useful in stimulating the local and international competitiveness in the economy through improving skills and service standards, facilitating and supporting excellence enhancing programmes. The Collaboration The objective of the collaboration between NIIT, Department of Economic Development, and Confederation of Indian Industries was to utilise each other’s core competencies expertise, knowledge, and technical know-how for mutual gain and benefit to realise the vision. It seeks to promote the learning and the use, or development of provincial skills, expertise and products and provide strategic leadership on economic development . The Department of Finance and Economic Development and Tourism of Kwa Zulu Natal province, Moses Kotane Institute, Confederation of India Industry and NIIT are working together in a joint alliance to create Global Talent Pool in ICT and Business Process Outsourcing in the province. This initiative entails training of learners in eight distributed government owned Further Education and Training colleges across the Province in over five year time period. “NIIT is supplying content, curriculum, training methodol-
ogy, education management process, e-Learning, training of trainers, trainers, industry collaboration and interface framework and mentoring. CII is helping with internships in India and Africa, Provincial government is funding the training part of the project�, says Ajai Manohar Lal, Chief Business Officer, Individual Learning Solutions - IT (International) at NIIT. The initiative helps support high impact projects by leveraging existing appropriate resources, ensure retention and progression of current jobs, creation of sustainable quality jobs and employee empowerment, stimulate local and international competitiveness in the KZN economy through improving skills and service standards and thereby becoming a part of economic growth of Africa. Innovation The key innovation in the model has been the use of best practices based on international case studies. The project is inclusive of blended learning, live industry internship in India and Africa, which is embedded as a part of the programme. Existing infrastructure is sought to be optimally used through multi stakeholder partnership. The system emphasises on entrepreneurial development and small, medium and micro enterprise. The programme became operational in 98 days from the date it started. The project has been adopted as the National Priority to Skill and Up Skill in other provinces of the country. More than 3000 learners have been undergoing ICT and BPO courses, with 30 learners selected for Live Internship as part of the course in India. Nearly 57 percent of learners receive placements in local South African industries. The model addresses end to end training needs by capacitating and empowering the youth through skills training. The project uses multiple delivery nodes and multi location trainer incubators. The project is proclaimed to be less cost intensive and can be replicated across spectrum.
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news
international
Speech-language, special education teachers in big demand due to retirements Trained teachers for helping students with Speech and Language disability are now in short supply due to retirements in Schools in La Crosse, USA. The school authorities have been finding it more and more complicated to locate trained teachers to assist students, more than 32,000 other Wisconsin children, who have a primary speech-language disability. There are about 1,900 speech-language pathologistsare working in Wisconsin schools, about one for every 16 children with a speech disability. A mass exodus of retiring teachers in the spring created 19 openings in the district’s special educa-
tion programme, five in the speech and language department alone. With days approaching for a new school year, the district is yet to fill all the openings. Teachers trained in speech-language pathology must have a master’s degree in order to be certified by the state. They are the only class of special education teacher that must meet such a demand.
Former education chief of Florida says state’s schools going backward Test results show Florida is going backward in preparing students for college, yet high schools keep getting high grades from the state, a former education commissioner told a higher education study panel recently. That disconnect is holding back efforts to improve schools, said John Winn, who was commissioner under Gov. Jeb Bush. Winn urged the state Higher Education Coordinating Council to take a look at Florida’s high school grading formula, which is heavily based on Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) scores, and recommend changes for reducing grade inflation. Students’ scores on standardized exams such as the FCAT steadily fall as they move from elementary school to middle and high school, Winn said. The ACT scores which was released showed Florida increased its composite score only slightly, from 19.5 to 19.6. Only Tennessee and Mississippi had lower scores.
Major literacy drive in Iraq A literacy and life skills training programme for 6,000 unemployed youth and women in Iraq has been launched by UNESCO. The grant programme, funded by the Office of Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, First Lady of Qatar, UNESCO’s special Envoy for Basic and Higher Education, is part of the Literacy Initiative for Empowerment (LIFE) project in Iraq which aims to achieve the Education for All (EFA) goal of reducing illiteracy by 50 per cent by 2015. The programme will help
Arizona lawmakers cut $30 million from vocational programme
25 local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the Iraqi education ministry to establish community learning centres throughout the country.
Texas Early childhood education programme sees increase in applications Many of Midland ISD’s early childhood classes won’t be complete when classes start for the coming semester, although registration for early childhood programs began in April. The district has received more than 200 applications for the program since Aug. 1 and has been unable to complete processing.
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The district did not anticipate so many late enrollments, and although it has been overwhelming.
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One reason applications may be up is because early childhood classes are being offered on elementary campuses instead of at early childhood centers. In April, the board of trustees voted to close Bunche and West Early Childhood centers to save money and begin the district’s reconfiguration process.
Thousands of high-school students will have one less year to study business, biotech, engineering, multimedia, refrigeration repair and dozens of other career and technical-education subjects after state lawmakers cut $30 million from a statewide program. The classes are part of the Joint Technological Education District, which offers vocational education through central and satellite programs in the state. Legislators passed a budget in the spring that eliminates funding for ninthgraders in vocation-education programs such as culinary arts, automotive repair and engineering. The cut costs 13 districts statewide, including the East Valley Institute of Technology and Western Maricopa Education, or West-Mec, almost $30 million. Authorities estimate that the cuts affect 20,000 to 25,000 students who will lose a year to explore whether a career- and technical-education track is right for them.
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news
international
Fall in number of Welsh students in UK universities Education experts called for scrutiny of this year’s A-level results as figures revealed the number of Welsh students being accepted into university has fallen. Figures released by the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (Ucas) to the Western Mail showed there were 159 fewer Welsh students accepted into university this year than at the same time last year. Fears that fewer top grades could lead to more talented students from Wales missing out on
Chilean Population March for Education Thousands of people gathered in Santiago , Chile’s capital, last week, to ask for improvements in the country’s education system. Protests have been going on for the past three months with most of them ending in violence, but the latest event was peaceful. It was attended by thousands students, teachers and even families with small children. The concerned authorities proposed a new education bill, but student leaders said it does not go far enough to bring equal access to schooling for the poor.
higher education were felt with successful applicants down by 1.4%. This was despite the number of applicants rising by 289 to 24,284 – from 23,995 in 2010. The data, which does not consider clearing or those reapplying from last year, also revealed a fall in the number of Welsh students winning entry into Welsh universities. The Welsh Government said it was too early to make an assessment on the figures with the clearing process still under way.
Dubai Ministry clarifies on school uniform order The Ministry of Education in Dubai has clarified that education zone administrations were instructed to obtain new unified school uniforms last year. A clarification was issued saying that the Ministry did not instruct schools to enforce a unified school bag system, contrary to what some might be saying or doing by asking parents to buy a specific school bag. A guideline regarding the unified school uniforms was
sent a year ago to the education zone administrations and that it will be implemented during the 2011/2012 school year. The new guideline takes into consideration the appropriate appearance of school students that are in line with the values of the school community of various education levels, and reaffirms the importance of the society’s values and identity. The new guideline obligates male students to wear the
dishdasha (kandura), the traditional UAE dress, as well as a sports uniform of a common colour and specifications. As for female students, the ministry was very keen on taking into consideration the society’s values and traditions when specifying the girl’s school uniforms, saying that the new uniform will be distinguished by modesty while still reflecting the virtuous attributes of their society.
NUS Bioengineering kicks off 10th anniversary celebrations with well-known international congress
The Bioengineering division of NUS’ Faculty of Engineering celebrated its 10th anniversary this year with a series of programmes. The dynam-
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ic Congress brought together some 260 tissue engineers, biomaterials scientists, clinicians and regenerative medicine specialists from different parts of the world to discuss a wide range of topics within the fields of tissue engineering, biomaterials, stem cells, and regenerative medicine.
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The conference featured many prominent global experts in the field, including Sir Roy Calne, a pioneering transplant surgeon who performed several first transplant operations in the world; Dr Alan Colman, the first in the world to clone a sheep; as well as Dr Cao Yilin,
known for his expertise in tissue engineering and its applications to repair defects. The Bioengineering division’s anniversary celebrations will culminate on 29 October 2011 with an open house showcasing its labs and research and a book and video launch.