The Teacher's Academy: July 2013

Understand the needs of your child

The parent knows the child’s temperament, personality, ability, talent, special needs and the little quirks and foibles which make him or her the unique individual whom you care (and worry) about so much. Choosing the most suitable educational environment is probably one of the most significant decisions you will make on behalf of your child. This book, Guide to Good Schools of India is the first of its kind in India, provides information to help weigh the available options.

Know your child’s needs...read more...

Students to USA, be cautious

After more than 2 years of media reports, US Authorities finally act and order closure of University of Northern Virginia… leaving Indian students searching for answers…
by Ravi Lochan Singh

In March 2011 itself, The Chronicle of Higher Education in an article Little-Known Colleges Exploit and covering the Tri-Valley University Scam wrote… More than 30 students are squeezed into a classroom at the University of Northern Virginia, located in a series of office buildings in the suburbs of Washington. Soft drinks have been provided, along […]

Education is the only way poor can aspire to a better life: Raziya Sultana

Education is the only way poor can aspire to a better life: Raziya Sultana
The United Nations has given 15-year-oldRaziya Sultana of Nangalkhumba village in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, a Special Envoy Award for Global Education. Announced recently on Malala Day, Raziya, a former child labourer, has been awarded for stopping child labour and enrolling children in schools. Speaking withSwati Mathur, Raziya discussed how she went from stitching footballs to heading a bal panchayat, why child labour exists - and how everyone needn't be prime minister but must aspire to a better life:

.... read more - The Times of India

Revamped e-textbooks to fight used mkt

Revamped e-textbooks to fight used mkt | Business Standard: "A booming market in recent years for selling and renting used college textbooks has saved students across the United States a tonne of cash.
But it has put textbook publishers in a bind. They don't make a cent unless students buy their books new."

'via Blog this'

TOEFL, Pearsons and Cambridge re-start your lobbying

TOEFL, Pearsons and Cambridge re-start your lobbying.
Your test disadvantages as only IELTS suits Aussie bound International students.

It pains me when I write this. There was a time when IELTS and OET were the only English proficiency tests accepted by Australia for visa purposes. Several years ago, I and my colleagues at AAERI had led the battle for acceptance of other tests as equivalent to IELTS. The efforts had resulted in successful acceptance of the other tests for the “student visas”. The immigration site announced in 2011 that…

Read more...

WHICH CITY offers the best return on investment to an International Student?

WHICH CITY offers the best return on investment to an International Student? A report analyses cities for precisely this information… Montreal top and Delhi at bottom of those assessed.

As the pace of globalisation accelerates and demand for higher education grows, global student mobility is on the rise. In 2010, more than 4.1m tertiary students were enrolled outside their country of citizenship, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Prospective students who want to study abroad, and their parents, face a staggering choice of locations in which to do so. Of course, the quality of the educational offering is crucial. Yet this is often not the sole consideration. Other factors include the potential for returns on financial and real-estate investments, the availability of work experience opportunities for graduates and the depth of cultural experience that an educational location will offer.

The college shakeout is overdue, and important - The Times of India

The college shakeout is overdue, and important

India's challenge is multiple tipping points at the intersection of employment and employability. About 30% of engineering and MBA capacity is unfilled because students are unhappy with the package of quality, price and job outcomes. The big engine of engineering education of the last 20 years — Information Technology hiring — is slowing down and changing gears. Manufacturing employment — a logical home for an engineering education — is stuck at 12% of the labour force since 1991. And labour laws are forcing employers to buy machines rather than hire people. But the primary issue is quality — a survey by MBAuniverse.com estimates that outside the top 20 MBA colleges only 24% of students are employable.

Read more

Why Kids Need to Tinker to Learn | MindShift

Why Kids Need to Tinker to Learn | MindShift

The Maker Movement has inspired progressive educators to bring more hands-on learning and tinkering into classrooms, and educator Gary Stager would like to see formal schooling be influenced by the Maker Movement, which has inspired young learners to tinker, to learn by doing, and take agency for their learning.

Raw Deal for Vocational Studies in DU

NEW DELHI: Despite the emphasis laid on participation in co-curricular activities by exam boards and schools, having one as subject does more harm than good when it comes to Delhi University admissions. Students who count any vocational or non-academic subject in their best-of-fours are either refused admission or discouraged to try via forbiddingly high cutoffs.

"I called about half-a-dozen colleges to ask if they'll allow me to include physical education in my best four subjects but they refused. I was making the cut for some courses at Lakshmi Bai, Bharti and Bhim Rao Ambedkar but only if I counted physical education," said a candidate who finally took admission in English at Sri Aurobindo College.

"Some colleges are accepting such students but by deducting large chunks of marks. One college is deducting 10% from the aggregate for students who've included mass media in their best-of-four," said another student. The university has left it to the colleges to decide.

At Hansraj College, however, only those candidates who have added "informatics practices" are being allowed. Apparently, the decision to allow this subject was taken after candidates who've included it in their aggregates were admitted into one of the courses, possibly due to an "oversight" as one teacher puts it. "How is creative writing a lesser 'vocational subject' for a candidate for English while informatics practices is considered an academic subject?" asks a parent whose daughter was denied admission for this reason.

"The stepmotherly treatment of vocational subjects is an ongoing problem with DU admissions," said a teacher. "The students say if their school or board had made them aware of this, they would never have opted for it. Yet, there is no coordination between DU and CBSE on this and no attempt to redress the problem."

Education is true empowerment

A passionate campaigner for female education, Malala addressed more than 500 students at a specially convened youth assembly.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon also addressed Friday's session, calling Malala "our hero".

The schoolgirl, who set up the Malala Fund following the attack, presented a petition of more than three million signatures to the UN secretary general demanding education for all.

Australian students in India

HYDERABAD, JULY 11:

In an interesting trend, over 400 students from Australia will head to India soon to pursue different education programmes.

In a way, it is a welcome move by the Australian Government as in the past decade, the number of students from India going ‘Down Under’, has been steadily going up. In addition, the collaborations between the two nations in education, science and technology are seeing big growth.

In a statement, Australia’s High Commissioner to India, Patrick Suckling, welcomed the Australian Government’s initiative to increase people to people links with India by funding study experiences for Australian students.

The Australian Government will provide $2.53 billion (A$47 million) over four years for the AsiaBound programme with $584 million (A$10.6 million) for the programme’s first year of operation.

The first group of AsiaBound student grants will allow 3,700 Australian students to study in Asia, from which more than 400 Australian students have been offered subsidies to study in India.

AsiaBound students to India include nursing students volunteering in New Delhi based orphanages; international development studies with students engaging themselves with community based non-government organisations in Bangalore; and emerging Australian producers, writers and directors experiencing India’s vibrant television and film production.

With 390 active links between 32 Australian and approximately 250 Indian institutions already in place in the fields of joint research, student and staff exchange, joint supervision and credit transfer, Australian higher education institutions have strong linkages and partnerships with India.

The programme provides funding in the form of grants for Australian students to participate in a study experience in Asia for up to six months to undertake language study, a semester study programme, research trips, clinical placements or volunteer projects, the statement said.

Somasekhar.m@thehindu.co.in

(This article was published on July 11, 2013)

India leads in education, says Cornell University President

India leads in education, says Cornell University President - Economic Times

A top American academician has described the drop in number of Indian students joining US universities as brain circulation rather than as reverse brain drain.

"I call it as a brain circulation and in the past it was going in one direction. We see discoveries are coming in the field of medicine, agriculture, technology from places that we did not think of in the past.

Duke’s Award face identity crisis, now an award for those seeking vocational careers… | RLS's Blog

Duke’s Award face identity crisis, now an award for those seeking vocational careers…

Now even the Duke Awards have an identity crisis. This is natural considering the fact that the earlier route of Elite Schooling leading to Elite University Education leading to Elite Careers is giving way to the realisation that today’s workforce needs different skills and more and more are getting disillusioned with the mere degree that they receive and which still leaves them unemployed. The focus is also moving to towards “vocational education” as they are seen better as “job ready” qualifications.

The Duke said that he had never regretted not going to university and that he was fortunate that when he was at Gordonstoun School, Morayshire, the focus was much broader than exam grades.

It was “an education of the whole person, not just from the neck up”, he said. “So it wasn’t totally focused and driven, and this was the days before we had league tables and exam results being the be-all and end-all and teaching for the exam.”

The launch of the Duke of York Award for Technical Education marks a stepping up of Prince Andrew’s work supporting skills, science and enterprise, on which he has focused since quitting as envoy for UK Trade and Industry in 2011 after a series of controversies.

Read full article on Ravi Lochan Singh's Blog

Social Media Marketing

Avignyata Inc.- Social Media Marketing
Avignyata Inc. isn't the usual corporate office- here we sit in a room with movie posters, access FB and Twitter all day, order in, download apps, play on the XBox and Kinect, but still reach a milestone in number of fans and evoke a lot of response from the fans. Easy going, yet professional and committed towards our work!

Avignyata Inc. is a Social Media Marketing Consultancy founded in 2007 by Moksh Juneja and Daksh Juneja with the aim to create awareness of a brand on social networks. From being a 2 member team in 2007, it has grown into one with a task force of over 30 people.

With the growth on the internet as a medium of information exchange increasing daily, Avignyata understands the need for organizations, individuals and brands to have a presence on social media. With each client, they identify unique and effective trends and employ these trends to engage with the users over an interactive platform based on feedback, reviews and constructive criticism.

It doesn’t end here. Their comprehensive services also allow you to zero-in on potential customers, key areas of activity and check out where the buzz is created, listen to what users have to say about your brand and much more.

Guide to Top Campuses in India

Guide to Top Campuses in India
Kavita Dass
ICS & EBD Publication

The ICS Guide to Top Campuses is certain to become the most important reference book for students of Class XI and XII - and their parents too. It gives an honest insight into the campuses and courses that students can realistically aspire to in India. The sample papers will prove to be invaluable to students in the preparation not only of their knowledge and skills, but also their expectations

Jyotsna Brar

Principal

Welham Girls' School, Dehradun

Price Rs. 595.00, Free Delivery in India

Send orders by Email to Vikas on sales@ebd.in

Challenges for India’s Livelihood Youth Skill Development in Rural Areas

Challenges for India’s Livelihood Youth Skill Development in Rural Areas
A critical element in India’s 12th Five Year Plan (2012-2017) is the generation of productive and gainful employment on a sufficient scale. The aim of such planning is to systematically absorb the growing working population in the unorganized sector of an expanding economy. This sector contributes about sixty percent of the country’s GDP. Infact, it employs workers in micro enterprises, unpaid family work, casual labor and home based work on a mammoth scale. In addition, it also absorbs migrant laborers, farmers, artisans and more importantly out of school rural youth.

Delhi University package: Flicker of hope with fourth cut-off

Delhi University package: Flicker of hope with fourth cut-off
Students running from college to college to bag that coveted Delhi University (DU) seat might have a reason to smile — the fourth cut-off list, to be announced on Sunday, might have reasonable lower cut-offs and some courses might reopen for admissions at few colleges.

Affordable Quality Education

Today we seem to be prescribing 'dot com' solutions for every challenge! It is best we look at SchoolEducation.Com with a new lens. Over the years we have had schools and good schools, how does one move schools from 'good to great'?

EBD's new school management company is there to help and even handhold schools, by enabling them with process, training and finding solutions to help them do whatever they are doing in a better way. The key focus of the company is partnering with existing schools and institutions to offer 'affordable quality education'. This is no run of the mill consulting or a design enterprise, a unique company with the specific goal of not putting additional burden on the school budget, but enabling them to use their resource better.

The best way to deliver quality education and bring about the personal and social development of an individual is by empowering young people to follow their passion. The education process today is built on the 4S formula and comprises Study, Skill, Sports and Service. The CBSE, CISCE and most of the national boards all are now adding skills and activity beyond the class room to their curriculum. This is where 'The YES Way' introduced by EBD will help you use your existing resources to meet the aspirations of the youth.

We bring together all the stakeholders to help deliver quality education. Today beyond the school, the community, business, government and even peers help strengthen the education process. The need for SchoolEducation.Com is much more than being a highway to communicate. We go the extra mile to help connect as then only will you move on to collaborate and finally to create.

Our focus is to create solutions within shoestring budgets, and thus we consider ourselves special - not a big consulting, but a small boutique to offer custom made solutions.

Education and Enterprise

What better sector to show one's entrepreneurial prowess than education? Catering to an ever-growing demand for application based simplified methods of teaching and facilitating both government and private education initiatives, a slew of entrepreneurs are betting big on the sector.

For some, the large volume of business and the prestige of being recognised as a technology supplier to government-run institutions is proving to be attractive for a number of young companies.

Read more
http://m.economictimes.com/articleshow/20912795.cms

The college shakeout is overdue, and important

The college shakeout is overdue, and important - The Times of India
India now produces more engineers and MBAs than the US and China combined. Our annual output of 15 lakh engineers and 3 lakh MBAs is way ahead of the US (1 lakh engineers and 1.25 lakh MBAs) and China (11 lakh engineers and 75,000 MBAs). This is not all dysfunctional; India's population is much larger than the US and China's lack of elections means it faces less political pressure for higher education expansion than we do.

Leadership: Courage, Attitude & Behavior

Leadership: Courage, Attitude & Behavior | Sheri Mackey The Global Coach

In addition to skills and competencies, real Leadership is about Courage, Attitude and Behavior:

Courage is not the absence of fear, but the absence of self.
A positive Attitude is a frame of mind – our perspective, as leaders, has much to do with how we engage and deal with challenges.
Our Behavior, in large part, determines how our people will act and react.

Will Delhi University’s 4-year BTech make an engineer? IITs not sure

Will Delhi University’s 4-year BTech make an engineer? IITs not sure
DU has converted a batch of six courses -computer science, electronics, instrumentation, psychological science, food technology and polymer science - that were earlier BSc or BA to BTech. Since the curricula for all subjects were revised to fit into the FYUP pattern, the syllabi for these courses were also changed. And to given an example of how there has been no compromise on the engineering aspect, teachers point out that the electronics course, for instance, closely follows the one at Delhi Technological University.

Going gets tough for state board students

Going gets tough for state board students - Indian Express

Despite scoring 90 per cent in Class XII, Vinod Rawat from Palwal district in Haryana has been running from pillar to post hoping to get admission in Delhi University.

A student of the Haryana Board, Rawat has not received his marksheet yet, making admission in DU an uphill task.

Courses reopen in third list, drop in science cutoffs

Courses reopen in third list, drop in science cutoffs - The Times of India

The third cutoff list, released on Wednesday, offered hope for those seeking admissions in popular courses as seats in commerce, economics, English, physics and chemistry, among others are still going free at several North Campus colleges. There are a few pleasant surprises. Cutoff for English at Hindu has dropped from 96.5%-98% to 93.5%-94.5%; political science has reopened at Kirori Mal; English in several colleges including Ramjas and Gargi; and cutoffs for science subjects have dropped significantly.

Some colleges flouting norms, admits DU

Hindustan Times - 5 hours ago

Going gets tough for state board students

Indian Express - 5 hours ago

Delhi University also open for those with 80%

Times of India - 4 hours ago

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