The XSEED School of Tomorrow conference organised by the Gurgaon-based iDiscoveri Education Pvt. Ltd convened in Bangalore on August 3, attracted more than 500 school-owners, principals and key administrators. Moreover live webcast of proceedings to 1,000 schools reached one million students, parents and educators, according to a company spokesperson.
The theme of the conference was ‘Solving the Dilemma’. “Private school education is a spreading social phenomenon with 40-60 percent of all students in private schools — a thriving industry valued at over $20 billion (Rs.132,000 crore). Yet, given poor learning outcomes and paucity of teaching talent, school leaders feel the desperate need to upgrade the quality of teaching, learning and curriculum. But in reality their energy is sucked into the management of everything else — parents who increasingly demand involvement in school affairs, increasing competition from well-funded corporate players, and interventionist government regulations like the Right to Education Act, 2009,” says Ashish Rajpal founder-chief executive of iDiscoveri, explaining the theme of the one-day conference.
The conference featured highly respected educationists as speakers including Pasi Sahlberg, acclaimed author of the book Finnish Lessons, which documents Finland’s successful education reforms; Deepa Sridhar, leader of Sri Kumaran Children Home, Bangalore; Luis Miranda, trustee of the Society for Nutrition Education and Health Action; Mansoor Khan, promoter-director of several DPS schools in Bangalore; Vasanthi Hariprakash, an independent media professional; the Chennai-based Dr. S. Anandalakshmy, eminent child development specialist, and Dr. M.S. Vijay Kumar, director of digital learning and educational innovation and technology at MIT, Boston.
TWS recruits new expat teachers
To augment its credentials as a globally benchmarked international school, the K-12 Taurian World School, Ranchi (TWS) has recently appointed several highly qualified expatriates to raise teaching-learning standards and improve critical thinking skills of the school’s 520 students. Among them: Chloe Hill, an education postgraduate of Bath University, UK with over a decade’s teaching experience in international schools in India, Japan and the UK who has been appointed senior manager, curriculum development; Date Modeste from the Ivory Coast and Maher El Echi from Tunisia to teach French, and Irina Fedorova from Russia to develop an institutional learning support department.
“In TWS we are conscious of the importance of reflection and self-evaluation for continuous improvement in classroom practice and institutional level development. We are confident that these highly qualified professional teachers will enable and empower our new endeavours in the field of international education,” says Dharam Raj Singh, principal of TWS.
Sheffield Hallam invites applications
Sheffield Hallam University (estb. 1843) one of the UK’s largest universities globally reputed for innovation and excellence, invites admission applications for postgrad professional programmes in information technology, database and enterprise systems management for the academic year beginning November.
Comments Sudha Toppo, the Delhi-based regional co-ordinator (South Asia) of the varsity: “At Sheffield Hallam, we are fully committed to academic excellence. Therefore the courses for the November intake are specially planned to enable students to explore different aspects of working as professionals in the IT industry. Students’ projects are designed to produce something of value. Moreover we ensure our students acquire real work life experience and learn about ways in which IT is integrated into workplaces.”
Admission application forms for the November 2013 intake can be obtained from Sheffield Hallam University’s South Asia office in Delhi (Ph: 011-2370 6239/40/41) or by emailing india@shu.ac.uk. The last date for submission of applications is October 15.
IFIM B-school bags IMC award
IFIM Business School, Bangalore was conferred a silver award for its industry internship programme in the category of Effective Industry-Institute Interface at the Indian Management Conclave 2013 convened on August 3 by MBA Universe.com at the India International Centre, New Delhi.
“IFIM has been continuously evolving its curriculum to match the expectation of recruiters with aspirations of students. This award is testimony to our faculty’s efforts in innovating the MBA curriculum,’’ says Sanjay Padode, director of IFIM.
IFIM’s 135-day Industry Internship Programme (IIP) is an integral part of the B-school’s two year postgrad MBA study programme. “The learning obtained from this internship goes a long way in shaping a robust career,” he adds. The projects were adjudged by an eminent panel of academics and corporate managers. Dr. Shashi Tharoor, Union HRD minister of state, presented the awards.
International Youth Day at KISS
Twenty-five tribal students of the Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS), Bhubaneswar, participated in a video conference with Ban Ki-moon, UN secretary-general on August 5 observed as International Youth Day of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). UNFPA is partnering with KISS for promoting life skills and sexual and reproductive health counseling to adolescents in the state of Odisha.
About 125 youth from five schools in Asia, Africa, Middle-East, Latin America and Europe were connected with UN Headquarters in New York, with KISS selected to represent Asia. Several issues and concerns relating to education, health, governance, livelihood, employment and science were raised by youth from around the world during the discussion.
“Working with women and young people is one of the top five priorities of the UN in 2013. In KISS we are committed to deepening our focus on employment, entrepreneurship, political inclusion, citizenship, protection of rights, and education, including reproductive health,’’ says a KISS spokesperson.