Tamil Nadu
TCS-Sastra concordat
To celebrate Teachers’ Day (September 5), Tata Consultancy Services Ltd, India’s premier IT services, consulting and business solutions company (annual revenue: Rs.110,084 crore), inked a partnership agreement with the Thanjavur-based SASTRA University.
Under the terms of the agreement, TCS will train over 2,000 government and private school teachers in Tamil Nadu to use new ICT (information and communications technologies) to improve students’ learning outcomes. The company will also establish a teacher training centre on the SASTRA campus.
“TCS believes that by empowering teachers through digital learning programmes, the quality of education delivered in 57,153 schools in Tamil Nadu will improve sharply,” said TCS executive vice president and global human resources head Ajoyendra Mukherjee, speaking on the occasion.
Puducherry
Online education initiative
Pondicherry University (PU) is all set to roll out several distance education programmes including MBA (Masters in Business Administration) through a specially designed Android app for students and working professionals living in tier II and III towns and cities. More than 2,500 students are already accessing these programmes, says a PU communique issued in Chennai on September 26. For online delivery of courses, students can download the mobile application from the Avagmah Technology Platform, it added.
“Through adoptive technology, we have endeavoured to make quality education accessible to students in far-flung areas who would otherwise have no access to quality education,” said Sibnath Deb, director (distance education cell) of PU.
Goa
Yoga education drive
The state government is all set to introduce khel khel mein, a yoga textbook published by Patanjali Yogpeeth, a Haridwar (Uttarakhand)-based yoga institute run by celebrated yoga guru Baba Ramdev, for yoga teachers and students in government primary schools in Goa.
“The problems school children face these days, such as stress, depression, lack of concentration, exam phobia, relationship issues and drug addiction are addressed in this book,” G.P. Bhat, director of education, informed the media in Panaji on September 15.
The (yoga training) scheme will be implemented by the Goa Educational Development Corporation for a period of six years commencing in the current academic year. Under the scheme, 15 government primaries in each tehsil will be selected for introducing yoga education and a teacher from each school will be selected for training by Patanjali Yogpeeth.
Kerala
Official assessments promise
Delivering a Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam Memorial Lecture at the Vedavyasa Vidyalayam Senior Secondary School in Kozhikode on September 25, Union human resource development minister Prakash Javadekar said the Central government will soon conduct its own assessments of students’ learning outcomes to provide a clear picture of the quality of education being imparted in public primary schools.
“We have a mission to improve the quality of education. Therefore, learning outcomes are important… Now the government will also conduct assessments every year of mathematical, language, reading and writing capabilities of students in government schools,” said the minister.
Uttarakhand
Welfare schemes awareness blitz
In an initiative to spread awareness about its socio-economic development schemes, the state government has directed schools in the Chamoli district to entrust a student with the task of introducing one development/welfare scheme run by the state government in the district, during every school’s daily prayer assembly.
The schemes have been compiled in a book delivered to all government and private schools through the chief education officer, Chamoli’s district magistrate Vinod Kumar Suman informed media personnel in Gopeshwar on September 20. This will ensure the schemes achieve their objectives and have maximum outreach, he said. The book introduces the state government’s schemes, targeted beneficiaries and how the latter can avail them.
Jharkhand
VBU silver jubilee
Jharkhand governor Draupadi Murmu lauded the Vinobha Bhave University (VBU) at a function to mark the inauguration of the varsity’s silver jubilee celebrations in Hazaribagh on September 18. She said VBU is “making remarkable progress” despite faculty shortages.
Murmu, who is ex officio chancellor of all 12 universities in Jharkhand, added that VBU is the only institution in the state offering choice-based study programmes and quality education to students.
“VBU is a role model for other universities and colleges not only in the state but in eastern India as well,” she said, adding that the varsity’s state-of-the-art infrastructure including modern labs and a central library are the main reasons for its excellent progress.
Paromita Sengupta with bureau inputs