Category Archives: Education

Newspaper archive at Alva’s Degree College makes history come alive

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Education

Mangalore:

The department of mass communication and journalism in Alva’s Degree College, Moodabidri, has a collection of around 4,500 old newspapers and magazines of various Indian languages, and also foreign newspapers.

The collection is a matter of pride for a region that saw Herman Mogling start the first Kannada newspaper ‘Mangalooru Samachara’ in 1843. Of the 4,500 journals, most are Kannada newspapers. There are some rare copies of Kannada newspapers on display like Nava Chethana, Kranthi Deepa, Mungaru and others published in 1970s.

For the past two years, this enormous and diverse collection of newspapers and magazines has been on display at the college. The old journals are preserved in special covers and exhibited in huge showcases to help students learn the history of journalism. This has been possible due to the efforts of Hareesh K Adhur, a lecturer of the department of mass communication and journalism, who has collected these newspapers by travelling to different places across the country.

“I have been collecting old newspapers since I was a student. I collected around 3,000 newspapers and a few years ago, a friend of mine gave me nearly 1,500 different newspapers. This collection of newspapers has been exhibited for students mainly because journalism is not a theoretical subject.”

Hareesh hopes the collection will help students understand how news was reported and presented in the earlier years, and compare it with the present day. The exhibition is open to all and entry is free.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / Home> City> Mangalore / TNN / August 16th, 2012

Making a real difference

Amazing Feats, Education, Leaders, Records, All, Uncategorized

Muscat:

He’s one of the wealthiest men in the world -“ he’s India’s third wealthiest man and the world’s 36th -“ but what gives Wipro chairman Azim Premji immense joy and fulfillment is devoting time and money to philanthropy.

That, of course, is evident through the innumerable acts of generosity he has indulged in all through the 40 years he has headed Wipro. Premji, in fact, is one of the first industrialists in India to devote a significant portion of his wealth to philanthropy (he donated $2 billion for the purpose of improving education). This money has been used for activities of the Azim Premji Foundation that works to promote education in rural India as well as the Azim Premji University in Bangalore.

For Azim Premji, the chairman of Indian multinational Wipro, social responsibility is a serious vocation, which is why they have appointed a full time CEO for their philanthropy movement, as he revealed to Times of Oman in an exclusive interview, while also lavishing high praise on the Oman government for creating a business-friendly environment . /Photo by Jun Estrada


The Wipro founder, who considers social responsibility his greatest duty in life, sheds light on his philosophy of philanthropy thus: “I have been lucky to have created quite a lot of wealth and feel that it should be used for the betterment of the society.-

Azim Premji was in Oman recently on an official visit when Times of Oman caught up with him.

Why this emphasis on education?
Premji replied, “We figured that we have a certain social responsibility and decided to focus on one area. So we focused on education. Through our foundation we focused on school education in the villages of India. Since the beginning, we worked in close partnership with various authorities, to help contribute to the improvement of the quality of education. We found the need for change and the need for improvement in the education sector was the most pressing there. That’s why we’ve been single mindedly focusing on education for the last 10 to 11 years and the good thing is that we have found success.-

Informing that the group is scaling up its operations now, Premji said, “We are using Azim Premji University for training teachers and for training in leadership and community development. We are taking young people with about two to three years experience, preferably from small towns, in the hope that at the end of the two-year course they’ll go back and use the learning in leadership in the places they come from.-
The university, he informed, has around 68 world class professors on the role.

“We have been pleasantly surprised at the quality of the talent we have been able to recruit. This goes to show that if we want to do sustained and honest work, people want to be part of the team. They think there’s a lot of pride, learning, and a sense of being able to contribute to that atmosphere,- he explained.
Premji believes that good education is crucial to building a just, fair, compassionate and sustainable society.

“We want to contribute significantly towards improvement of education in India, and through that towards building a better society. Next year we plan to launch a four-year bachelors’ programme.-

He is happy that his team has been making a difference.
“Our programme, called Wipro Applying Thought in School, has covered a million programmes so far accumulatively. The intent of this initiative is to improve the quality of education -“ so that opportunities and possibilities are expanded for everyone.-

Talking about a programme called Mission 10X launched in 2007 for engineering schools, Premji said, “India sees around 700,000 engineers graduate every year of which only a third are employable by the industry. The rest are not employable because the curriculum is primarily not current and professors are not taught well or up to date on technology. The Mission10X is basically a not-for-profit initiative created by Wipro to enhance employability skills of engineering graduates.-
Wipro has dedicated some 15 full time professors for this purpose from its training and leadership institute.

“We have also covered 30,000 professors. We feel if we can bring up the quality of teaching in the engineering students, the quality of students will improve, which in turn will result in the eligible students going up by 50 per cent,- he explained.
As for the philanthropy meet Premji hosted along with Bill Gates and Ratan Tata in Bangalore recently, he said, “This will be an annual event with workshops in between. There is a lot of wealth in our country. So we thought let’s together assemble corporates that have shown a track record of philanthropy and get some common understanding with them.

“We started off with this thought and now, as per the need, we have appointed a full time CEO for this philanthropy movement. Four to five of us are funding in terms infrastructure and people cost. We have formed four groups (education, healthcare, water and agriculture). Each group has a chairman who is a member of the large core group. We’ll have small workshops throughout the year so that more specialised discussion can take place.

“We are satisfied with the interest we got and what we are doing. We are all serious people because we didn’t want a tamasha. We had shown a track record of doing serious work and we hope to see success. We have started and plan to expand it. But we hope to do something which has a possibility of success.-

Recently, his wife, Yasmeen Premji, launched her first book, Days of Gold and Sepia and Azim Premji looks very proud of this endeavour. “I have read the book twice. It is an interesting book which is well written. I am not saying that because she is my wife. It has to be good; she has taken 20 years to write it,- he told Times of Oman.

On investing in India, Pemji said, “I think you have to have faith in India. It is a sound democracy. The voter is mature. Besides, the leadership is there in the country so it can change or get modified. Politicians can see the threat of survival and change themselves in terms of survival. Overall, I am optimistic. Besides, we wouldn’t be investing so much in India if we were frightened.-

About his impressions about Oman, he said, “I think it’s a country which has a great future. Government and companies are open to do business here, which is why they are open to meet companies.-

And at this note, he concluded: “I will back to Oman within a year.-

source: http://www.TimesofOman.com / Home> News / by Mrudu Naik, mrudu@timesofoman.com / September 13th, 2012

Azim Premji Foundation launches Teachers of India portal

Education

Bangalore, Sep 5:

An exclusive portal for teachers to hone their professional capabilities has been launched by the Azim Premji Foundation. The portal www.teachersofindia.org. is a free and open platform for teachers providing access to quality teaching aids and digital resources.

The Teacher Portal was originally developed by the Foundation in collaboration with the National Knowledge Commission. Since then the Foundation has expanded the portal into a space for teachers to interact, discuss, reflect, create and share academic resources and thus foster an inclusive community of teachers across the country, according to a Foundation release here today.

The Teachers of India Portal aims to support teachers in their academic efforts and thus facilitate improvements in teaching and learning. A key feature of the portal is the availability of content in several regional languages. At present these include Hindi, Kannada, Telugu, Tamil and English.

It provided teachers and educators with resources, insights and information in education to enhance their pedagogical and content knowledge and enables easy access and delivery of content, greater reach and real-time dissemination of knowledge through technology.

It would also recognise efforts of teachers who have made a difference in the field of education through the ‘Spotlight’ section and provide a platform for teachers and educators to freely and regularly interact and collaborate outside the formal school environment.

-Agencies

source: http://www.news.chennaionline.com / Home> News> South> Chennai / September 05th, 2012

250 book readings on Literacy Day

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Education

The sessions, by Pratham Books, will be spread across the State

Pratham Books is planning to celebrate International Literacy Day (September 8) this year by holding storytelling sessions in multiple locations across the country.

“The idea is to encourage children to fall in love with reading. This initiative is part of the Pratham Books’s Champions Programme where we encourage our community of volunteers to conduct reading sessions,” says Purvi Shah of Pratham.

So far, Pratham has 250 identified ‘champions’ who will hold reading sessions in as many locations. Karnataka will have the largest such sessions, at 80, spread across the State from Bangalore to Raichur.

The publishers also hope to create a Limca Record with this initiative.

The book chosen for reading is Susheela’s Kolams , which is about a little girl who loves rangoli ( kolamin Tamil) and dreams big. Written by Sridala Swamy, it has illustrations by Priya Kuriyan.

Mala Kumar, an editor at Pratham who is also a ‘champion’ for the reading at Anatha Shishu Nivasa, an orphanage on Bull Temple Road, is planning to use the reading session to also teach children some English.

“The children there study in a Kannada medium school. I am planning to read the book in English, one page at a time, and ask the children to translate. We will then read the same from the Kannada book and see which translation comes closest to the original,” said Ms. Kumar.

She also plans to get children to draw rangolis with powder and chalk.

The reading sessions will not be entirely structured and much will depend on the mood of the children, so that it can be both a fun and learning experience.

For details, check www.prathambooks.org/ 1-day-1-book-100-sessions.

source: http://www.TheHindu.com / Home> National> Karnataka / by Special Correspondent / Bangalore, September 08th, 2012

IDEEA scholarships for Hemophilia students to be launched on Tuesday

Education, Inspiration/ Positive News and Features, Science & Technology

Mangalore:

Manipal University and Manipal Hemophilia Society will jointly launch the project ‘IDEEA’ (Identification, Diagnosis, Education and Empowerment for Action) and distribution of higher education scholarships for students with bleeding disorders in South India.

Dr Annamma Kurien, President of Manipal Chapter of Haemophilia Society said the launch be held at Shirdi Saibaba Cancer hospital and research centre in Kasturba Hospital Campus, Manipal on August 28 at 3 pm. IDEEA is supported by the grant from Novo Nordisk Hemophilia Foundation (NNHF), Switzerland.

Through this project the accredited social health activist (ASHA) will get the training to identify the suspected persons with hemophilia and other bleeding disorders in the community. The suspected people with bleeding disorders will undergo detailed tests in Kasturba Hospital, Manipal for the accurate diagnosis and the sub typing of bleeding disorders. A specialized hemostasis and thrombosis division, Kasturba Hospital, is being set up also supported by the Manipal University. Patients from the 4 districts of Udupi, Dakshina Kannada, Shimoga and Chikmagalur with suspected bleeding disorders will get facilities for free testing.

This project will also aim to empower persons with hemophilia by education to improve their quality of life. As a part of empowerment, a scholarship distribution for the student with hemophilia to support their higher education will also take place during the function. This scholarship is sponsored by Save One Life (SOL) organization, USA. This year eight students are selected for the scholarship. Hemophilia is a genetic, life threatening bleeding disorder in which blood does not clot normally due to the deficiency or absence of clotting factors.

The Manipal Hemophilia Society, a registered chapter of Hemophilia Federation of India (HFI), affiliated to World Federation of Hemophilia, Canada (WFH) started its functioning in the year 1999 in Kasturba Hospital Manipal. It provides comprehensive medical services to the patients, who are suffering from hemophilia and related bleeding disorders. More than 250 patients from various districts of both Karnataka and Kerala are registered under Manipal Hemophilia society. It conducts regular hemophilia clinic once a month on every second Saturday for the persons with hemophilia, where a team of medical and allied health science professionals from various specialties trained in hemophilia care are available for the proper care and management.

The Society also provides anti hemophilic factor (AHF), a costly life saving medicine at an affordable rate to the persons with hemophilia. The support of Manipal University has sustained the care of hemophilia patients.

source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / Home> Education / by Stanley Pinto, TNN / August 27th, 2012

 

Brickwork Finance Academy Announces Session on “Finance Careers in India”

Business & Economy, Education

Brickwork Finance Academy announces session on “Finance Careers in India” at its campus on Kalena Agrahara, Bannerghatta Road, Bangalore on Friday, August 31, 2012 at 5:00 PM.

The professional courses and the MBA courses available in the country today, aim to address the requirement of qualified and competent workforce in industry. However, the gap between demand for and availability of skilled workforce continues to exist as a large number of qualified graduates are not competent enough to be absorbed by industry. This deficiency may be a result of the diminishing focus on quality of education across the plethora of management institutions that have mushroomed across the length and breadth of the country. The industry academia gap may also be a result of excessive focus on theoretical concepts rather than ahealthy mix of theory and practice.

An important aspect crucial to any finance function today, is that finance professionals have to constantly upgrade their knowledge base, in order to cope with the dynamic external environment. The changing regulatory framework, introduction of new financial products, and changing client requirements require a finance professional to keep abreast of the latest developments in these markets. Focused financial courses can enable an individual to keep up to date with developments in their respective domains.

One such course is the Post Graduate Program in Finance offered by Brickwork Finance Academy. This course covers vital areas in finance namely, Credit Management, Investment Management and Risk Management, with specific reference to the Indian and Internationalfinancial markets. The faculty of the program, are highly experienced industry experts, practitioners and academicians with hands on experience in the financial sector. Spread over nine months with 270 contact hours, the program provides its participants an opportunity to interact with industry experts enabling them to understand practical aspects of the current environment and the challenges in the finance sector.

In line with the objectives of facilitating continuous learning, laid out in its Charter, Brickwork Finance Academy will be conducting an interactive session on “Finance Careers in India” with specific reference to the BFSI sector in the month of September.

Those interested in attending this session are requested to kindly mail a small brief about themselves along with their contact details to events@bfa-india.org by 30th August, 2012, or please call Raghavendra @ +91 80 4040 9950/ +91 97434 37999.

Attendance to the session is by invitation only.

To know more about Brickwork Finance Academy visit www.bfa-india.org

source: http://www.moneylife.in / Home / Business Wire India / August 28th, 2012

URA is Central Varsity Chancellor

Education, Leaders

Bangalore, Aug. 25

President Pranab Mukherjee has appointed Jnanpith awardee Dr. U.R. Anan-thamurthy (URA) as the first Chancellor of Central University of Karnataka, Gulbarga, for five years.

The 80-year-old litterateur earlier served as Vice-Chancellor of Mahatma Gandhi University in Kottayam, Kerala. He was also the President of Sahitya Akademi and Chairman of National Book Trust of India, New Delhi.

Born in 1932 at Melige village in Shimoga, URA started his career in the Department of English in the University of Mysore.

source: http://www.StarofMysore.com / Home> General News / August 25th, 2012

Prof. J.A.K. Tareen feted

Education, Leaders

Caption: Prof. J.A.K.Tareen, Vice-Chancellor, Pondicherry Central University, who was felicitated by the PBMM PG Centre in city recently is seen with (from left) Prof. P. Sarojamma, Administrative Officer, MES, R. Vasudeva Murthy, President, MES, Dr. Prabhushankara, Vice-President, Dr. C.K.Renukarya, Centre Director, Dr. P. R. Naga Srinivasa, Hon. Secretary, MES and Prof. S.R.S. Khadri, Director, Management Studies, PBMM PG Centre.

Mysore, Aug.23

“Be prepared to become global citizens of today and tomorrow.”

This call was given to the students of Pooja Bhagavat Memorial Mahajana Post Graduate Centre by Prof. J.A.K.Tareen, Vice-Chancellor, Pondicherry Central University, at a function to felicitate him organised by the PBMM PG Centre at its premises on KRS Road, Metagalli, in city recently.

The PG Centre had organised a felicitation programme in honour of Prof. Tareen.

On the occasion, Prof. Tareen, shared his wisdom gathered through his forty five years of service in the academic field.

He told the students that constraints of resources and discrimination should not become hindrances to growth. Rather, they must be taken as challenges which can be successfully overcome with hard work and determination.

Further he asked the students to learn as many languages as possible so that they can take up work not just in Karnataka, but anywhere in India or abroad.

Dr. Tareen said that the Pondicherry Central University offers free education to all the girl and physically handicapped students. The transportation facility is free for all staff and students, along with subsidy in a number of student welfare programmes.

Dr. C.K.Renukarya, introduced Prof. Tareen highlighting his career achievements as Professor of Geology in Mysore University, the work he did as VC of J&K University, his service to higher education as Member of UGC and getting Padma Shri award in recognition of his service in the field of education.

C.R.Rachana, Asst. Professor, welcomed. Prof. Shiv Shankar proposed a vote of thanks.

source: http://www.StarofMysore.com / General News / August 29th, 2012

Students celebrate national year of Mathematics

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Education

Bangalore:

Infosys Science Foundation in association with Sishu Griha Montessori and High School organized an inter-school mathematics fest ‘Limit Infinity – The Number Games’. The day-long event on Saturday witnessed participation from over 160 students from 25 schools in the city.

“The Limit Infinity fest was aimed at inspiring a love for Mathematics and to help eliminate the fear of Math in young minds. With the year 2012-13 being celebrated as the ‘National Year of Mathematics’ in India in honor of the renowned mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan’s 125th birth anniversary, we thought it apt to organize this fest to demystify Math and overcome the myths and fallacies associated with numbers. The aim was also to encourage students to pursue the field of Math in future,” said Sujatha Mohandas, the principal of Sishu Griha School.

The event hosted interesting sessions that focused on combining Math and fun, while engaging youngsters in group discussions, quizzes, and relay of problem solving sessions. Presentations and a skit on the life of Ramanujan by the Sishu Griha students were also organized to help children understand the application of Math in day-to-day lives.

K Dinesh, co-founder Infosys said, “It is important to encourage and influence the young minds in our country to pursue Math at advanced levels and bring back the romance in this field of study. Limit Infinity, organized by Sishu Griha and Infosys Science Foundation is our effort in this direction. I am sure it demonstrated how exciting a subject Mathematics can be.

source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / Home> City> Bangalore> Mathematics / TNN / August 05th, 2012

School Leadership Development Program to empower teachers

Education, Leaders

Mysore:

The rural kids studying at the government schools in Tirumakudlu Narsipur will get some special lessons.

They will be told the importance of leadership and their skills will be honed by their head masters or head mistress, who will be trained by experts to empower them to take lead in their assignments. An initiative of the Azim Premji Foundation aimed at improving the quality of primary education, the Vivekananda Institute for Leadership Development (V-LEAD), which is  Swami Vivekananda Youth Movement (SVYM), will train the head of the primary and higher primary schools in the district asking them to take leadership in addressing the issues locally. Be it addressing the concerns raised by the parents or challenged related to infrastructure, the HMs will be trained to handle them independently so that such issues doesn’t affect the education of the kids.

The School Leadership Development Program (SLDP) is devised based on the premise that the quality of leadership directly influences the quality of education imparted. Over the next two years, HMs and cluster resource persons (CRPs) will be trained. The CRPs are tasked with monitoring 10 schools. The training sessions were formally launched on Thursday at the V-LEAD. In the first installment, HMs and CRPs in T Narsipur will be trained. The Sarva Siksha Abhiyaan and UNICEF are supporting the SLDP. The Azim Premji Foundation leader M Manjunath said at the inauguration that the quality of education primarily depends on the teachers and there is need for capacity building among the teachers serving in the government schools. The SVMY founder Dr R Balasubramaniam said teachers should stay put at the villages for increased focus on their students.

The Block Education Officer (BEO) will select the HMs and the CRPs for the batches, who will have in-house training and also visit the fields. “We will ask the trainees to locate the challenges they are facing and work on it when they are here,” the V-LEAD’s team leader (Education Leadership Management) Bellegowda said. The training sessions are spread over 15 weeks and they will have in-house training for 22 days. The Azim Premji Foundation has selected us for the project, he told The Times of India. The V-LEAD will implement the SLDP in Mysore, Chamarajnagar, Kodagu and Mandya districts starting with Mysore’s three educational blocks-T Narsipur, Mysore rural and Krishnarajnagar.

There are 229 HMs in T Narsipur taluk, who will undergo training first. The HMs who will have at least 4 years of service are favoured since they need time to implement what they pick up during training at their schools.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / Home> City> Mysore / HM Aravind, TNN / August 02nd, 2012