education & ICT

29.03.2005 President Robert Mugabe has pulled out all the stops before elections in Zimbabwe Thursday, spending US$100 million of the state's money on Hewlett Packard laptops that he passes out at schools as he campaigns across the country. Meanwhile, many of the schools receiving the high-tech computers have been without textbooks, electricity, furniture or even roofs for many years.

24.03.2005 "I think that there is a role for ICT, but have we explored the extent to which that can be harnessed in education? I don’t think that there is enough discussion between education and the ICT sector”, tells Erma Manoncourt in an interview with Anupama Ramakrishnan of OneWorld South Asia.

21.03.2005 An international study of about 100,000 15-year-olds in 32 different developed and developing countries suggests that student performance diminish, if they have computer at home.

18.03.2005 Global e-Schools and Communities Initiative (GeSCI), an initiative of the UN ICT Task Force, invites proposal of partnerships from public, private and civil society actors. GeSCI works closely with local partners to improve quality of learning by using ICTs in schools.

18.03.2005 Education for All Global Monitoring Report (GMR) holds an online consultation running from 10 to 25 March. UNESCO publishes the GMR annually to monitor the progress made by the nations states in achieving the Education for All goals.

17.03.2005 BBC is set to launch its Digital Curriculum Service by January 2006. The free, curriculum-based, online learning module will give rich learning experiences to the 5 – 16 year olds.

17.03.2005 Byataranapura Higher Primary School in Bangalore has installed a single PC with three monitors with separate mouse and keyboards for each, as part of the Computer Aided Learning Centre (CALC) programme. Supported by the Azim Premzi Foundation, the initiative is testing this model to help schools in reducing the cost of computer assisted e-learning.

17.03.2005 Digital divide is not a problem in itself, but a symptom of deeper, more important divides: of income, development and literacy. Fewer people in poor countries than in rich ones own computers and have access to the internet simply because they are too poor, are illiterate, or have other more pressing concerns, such as food, health care and security.

16.03.2005 Technologies have great potential for knowledge dissemination, effective learning and efficient education services. Yet, if the educational policies and strategies are not right and if the prerequisite conditions for using these technologies are not met concurrently, this potential will not be realised.

16.03.2005 The youngest of three sisters, 7-year-old Lovely Khatoon keeps quite busy from daybreak onwards. The daughter of a poor umbrella-repair man, Lovely goes to school meant for small children. On returning from school, she ...

16.03.2005 Our end objective in the use of technology is to enhance learning in elementary schools. We believe that we can ignite the desire in the child to learn. We believe that a learning child will be the foundation for establishing a just, equitable and humane society.

16.03.2005 “IT enabled education should be encouraged. The education issue should be accepted as a national challenge. Government alone cannot accept this challenge and address it”, says Shri Bhalchandra Mungekar in an interview with Manish Kumar of OneWorld South Asia.

16.03.2005 As a country, we are beginning to explore the ways in which to bring all children to school At the same time we are also exploring ways in which to bridge the digital divide.Combing the two efforts will help to accelerate India’s progress towards education for all.

15.03.2005 On the edge of the expanding wave of Internet connectivity, Punavali Kalan is located deep in the impoverished region of Bundelkhand.Though dial-up or subscriber lines do not yet reach the villagers, access to the Web is available through a VSAT at the local community knowledge center, the TARAkendra.

15.03.2005 Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world,”says Nelson Mandela. Read in the context of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which represents a global commitment by nations to improve lives and remove poverty, Mandela’s words couldn’t have been more relevant.

15.03.2005 Learning and knowledge are our common wealth. Fortunately that wealth is not a fixed quantity that creates winners and losers when we share it. The only limitation on the expansion of knowledge and learning is the inadequacy of traditional means for sharing it.

11.03.2005 Radio Shreenagar of Palpa district in Nepal has started airing programmes to provide tutorial support to the local students appearing for the SLCS examination. On-the-air tutorials on English, Mathematics and Science are being offered for the students of class X and XI.

11.03.2005 Students of Chennai's MOP Vaishnav College have set up their community radio channel 'MOP at 91.2 FM'. The Channel will air programmes in the city every morning from 6.30 to 7.30 am.

10.03.2005 Though Uzbekistan has a net enrolment ratio of 99% with a minimal gender disparity, the quality of basic education is often low and less relevance. To improve the situation, Asian Development Bank has initiated a scoping study to integrate an ICT-assisted learning in certain grade levels.