Category Archives: Education

Revolution through an I-slate in AP village

Education

Students of Mohammad Hussain Pally school photograph an image of Goddess Saraswati with their I-slates before the commencement of classes. /  Photo: P V Sivakumar / The Hindu

Seated amidst rain water puddles in their classroom, more than a 100 kilometres from Hyderabad, in Jadcharla of Mahbubnagar district, Pushpa, Prashanti, Sivamma, Swapna, Rihana and their classmates are unlikely pioneers of an educational revolution.

These children of Mohamed Hussainpally Village School in Ghanpur mandal are glued to their I-slates as maths teacher T Srinivas guides them through a lesson in solving problems.

These first generation village learners wield the stylus on their I-slates with ease, using it like a magic wand, displaying creativity, identifying problems and brimming with knowledge of the web world opened up to them.

The school tucked away between hillocks in what was once a Maoist bastion, has transformed the lives of these young children with the new generation learning solutions. Farmer Pandha Narasimha watched his daughter Sirisha ‘etch’ his name and take his picture on the webcam with unconcealed joy. Mr Narsimha said “I do not want her to know of my farm debts, let her study and she will bring me joy.”

The I-slate has been a hit, said Ms Pingali Rajeswari, a descendant of Pingali Venkanna ( who designed the National Tricolour), who introduced the technology to this remote village in August 2011 through her ViDal (Villagers for Learning and Development) Foundation. Ms Rajeswari said, “ ..after all India lives in its villages; they (rural folk) only watch urban India grow . Now let the talent bloom from rural India.”

With the I-slate in their hands, the school children are into web designing and have shunned watching the television, said Mr Srinivas. “They take the I-slate home do their home work.” The I-slate has a software that allows the teacher to track how much time is spent on a particular subject at home.

Watching their children work on the gadget, their parents are keen to buy the high end I-slates for the children. For now 20 students have been given the I-slate free of cost. The school children have learnt about conserving energy as they charge their I-slates from a small solar panel installed over their school building.

Students Manjula and Ashok are keen to find a solution to reduce the heating of their I-slates and are very inquisitive about it, said Mr Srinivas.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / Home> News> States> Andhra Pradesh / by P V SivaKumar / Jadcharla, August 14th, 2012

Eamcet results: Hyderabad students hog top ranks

Education, Records, All

Hyderabad:

City students bagged the top ranks in both medical and engineering streams in Eamcet-2012, results of which were released here on Friday. The first rank in medical stream was secured by Vijay Ketan Reddy, a resident of Dilsukhnagar and in engineering stream the first rank was bagged by Chinta Nitish Chandra, a resident of Madhapur. Unlike the previous year where most of the top ranks were bagged by girl students, this year in both the streams just two girl students each secured top ranks.

Out of a total of 2.83 lakh students who wrote the engineering stream of the examination about 2.07 lakh had secured ranks. Out of a total of 90,917 students who wrote the medical examination just about 77,800 students secured ranks.

Counselling for admissions to engineering colleges is expected to start in the third week of July and classes are expected to start by the end of August. Since about 2.34 lakh seats are available in engineering colleges in the state each of the students who secured rank in Eamcet will get a tech seat for sure. However, in medicine with just about 4,500 seats available for 77,800 students the competition for seats will be tough, officials said.

The toppers said that they had secured the best ranks as they had spent 18 hours a day preparing for the test. Medicine topper Vijay Ketan said he decided to opt for the stream against his father’s wish and hence he had to prove his mettle. Ketan’s father, Raghuveer Reddy is an ophthalmologist who runs a private clinic in the city. “He did not want me to become a doctor as my elder sister had opted for the same profession. My family wanted me to be an engineer but my interest was in medical sciences and I followed my dream,” said Ketan who is planning to join Gandhi Medical College. The topper in engineering, Chinta Nitish Chandra said he is interested in computer engineering.

“I have still not decided which college to choose from as I have cleared national entrance examinations as well,” Chandra said.

Interestingly, a majority of the rank holders in engineering stream might not take admissions in city’s engineering colleges and they would opt for IITs or IIITs. Region wise and category wise ranks will be indicated to enable students to know their position in the region’s rank list this year. Damodar Raja Narasimha, minister for higher and technical education released the results here on Friday. With Eamcet going online this year officials had saved much time, said M V Ramana Rao, convener, Eamcet.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / Home> City> Hyderabad / TNN / June 30th, 2012

Turning a blind eye to their rights

Education, Inspiration /Positive News and Features

Bustling classrooms, children flipping through text books — at first sight this school in Begumpet looks like any ordinary school. A closer look reveals a different picture.

The Devnar School for the Blind is tucked away in a corner of Begumpet in Mayuri Marg. About 500 students study here. Aided by corporates and individuals, the school is free for all the students. Unfortunately, this is also the only English medium school for the visually challenged, as well as one of the three such schools in the City.

According to a WHO report, 39 million people in the world are blind. About 90 per cent of the world’s visually challenged live in developing countries.

There are a staggering 15 million blind people in India, two million of whom are children. In fact, one out of every three visually challenged people in the world live in India alone.

Hyderabad has an estimated 2 lakh children who are visually challenged. For a number that high, there are only three schools — Devnar School for the Blind, Darus Safa School for the Blind for Boys, and Malakpet School for the Blind for Girls. The number of students studying in these schools is a meager 740. The State has just eight schools.

“Many parents whose children are visually challenged, aren’t aware of how the potential of such children can be tapped. Unfortunately, there aren’t many schools in the City that cater to them. Visually impaired children are focused on what they want. Their IQ is high and the mental capacity is as high as other children. If you expose them to different topics, they can learn well. Education and a job can give them a secure future,” pointed out Lily Egbert, principal, Devnar School.

Take for example Zubair and Amir, who studied at Devnar. Zubair is now a lecturer in Jawaharlal Nehru University, while Amir works as an HR with an MNC.

“Visually challenged people are now working successfully and even paying taxes to the government. They can do any job. However, the bigger problem is enrolment. Parents should have the courage to send their children to such schools. There is a lot of demand for blind schools, and NGOs are working towards it. The facilities for the visually challenged should improve. Enrolment and opening schools go hand in hand,” opined Dr A Saibabab Goud, founder and

chairman of Devnar.

Teachers in such schools need to complete a B.Ed in Visual Impairment and learn braille (a form of written language for the visually challenged), have immense patience, and love what they do. In Devnar, many teachers are also parents of visually challenged children.

The government is doing their bit, or so they claim. “We are opening Kasturba Gandhi School for the Blind and Hearing Impaired in all the districts. It has opened in some of the districts and will soon be open in all as well. The Anganwadi workers and Indira Kranthi Pathakam workers, along with the education department, is roaming door-to-door and counselling the parents,” said Sunitha Laxma Reddy, minister for juvenile welfare.

“We are sanctioning free metric and post-metric scholarships to students, as well as providing MP3 players, laptops, apart from training them in computers. The government is also sanctioning grants to NGOs. The Central minister for social justice said that if we can propose a plan by August, he will sanction more grants. We even requested the CM for more sanctions. He suggested inclusive education where mainstream schools can have separate sections for them,” she added.

The fact remains that there is an urgent need for more schools that cater to them. As the tag line of the Devnar reads ‘The blind need opportunity not sympathy’.

source: http://www.postnoon.com / Home> City> by Osama Salman / June 28th, 2012

2,300 students get gifts from NAM Foundation

Education, Inspiration /Positive News and Features, Resources of Free Materials, Uncategorized

Around 2,300 students from various schools in old city were provided with schoolbags and stationery by NAM Foundation on Sunday in Hyderabad.  / Photo: Balachander Goud RK / The Hindu

Ten-year-old Mohd. Shareef, student of class five of Government Primary School at Achireddynagar, was quite worried about purchasing a school bag, notebooks and stationery as his father, who is an auto driver cannot afford to provide him with all these materials at one time.

Thanks to the initiative of National Association of Muslims (NAM) Foundation, Mohd. Shareef is all smiles today.

The foundation, which is a voluntary organisation, provided him with books, school bags, pencil box etc. free of cost on Sunday at Mehdipatnam.

It’s not just Mohd. Shareef alone, 2,300 other students too were presented with school books and other stationery on the occasion. Besides, distributing books and stationery, the foundation also paid the first-term tuition fee for 1,104 students studying at different private schools and colleges.

Cheques were presented to the respective school and college management representatives during the programme.

Meritorious students adopted by the foundation were presented with gold medals and cash awards.

All the expenditure is met through donations received from various philanthropists and organisations across the globe.

The objective behind distributing books and paying fee was to motivate and improve the quality of education and literacy rate in old city, said foundation chairman, Mohd. Jameeluddin.

In addition to distributing books, the organisation presented 55 sewing and embroidery machines to poor and illiterate women, who had completed training in craft and tailoring courses.

Syed Anwarul Huda, Director General (law and order) was chief guest for the function while Dr. Hemanth Kaukuntla, consultant cardiothoracic surgeon, Care Hospital and M.A. Basith, former Director General of Police were among special invitees.

source: http://www.TheHindu.com / Home> News> Cities> Hyderabad / by Staff Reporter / June 25th, 2012

Young Turks tap tech to make classrooms smart, fun

Business & Economy, Education, Science & Technology

The growing education market, which is estimated at USD 40 billion, is attracting interest from a lot of young entrepreneurs. The advent of technology is making classrooms not just smart, but also fun. The idea to use technology to enhance learning in classrooms led by Ram Gollamudi and his friends, to start Edutor Technologies in 2009, a pioneer in launching tablets for students in school.

The Edutor student tablet comes loaded with content that can be updated and it is compatible with all tablet platforms like Android, iOS and Windows mobile solutions. Having already gross revenues of Rs 2,000 crore, Edutor is now targeting Rs 10 crore by next year.

Below is an edited transcript of the interview with Ram Gollamudi on CNBC-TV18’s special show, Young Turks. Also watch the accompanying video

Ram Gollamudi and his team started Edutor Technologies to focus on providing learning solutions for tablets which could be used as a teaching tool.  Apart from serving private schools, Edutor Technologies is in collaboration with the incubation center at IIT-Madras to work on a solution to cater to high-school students in government schools. Serving more than 4,000 children in India, Ram hopes to cater to 10,000 by the end of the year. But what got him started?

Ram Gollamudi, founder & CEO, Edutor Technologies: During my 15-year stay in the US, I observed how technology was used in the whole learning and teaching processes.

The idea to use technology to enhance the learning process struck me when my when my 4-5 year-old son picked up the rudiments of english, maths and science by playing with the iPod Touch.

I returned to India and starting developing the idea with my friends, two-and-a-half years ago. We extensively developed software and content to really take advantage of the rich medium a tablet provides and deliver superior learning experience for students.

And helping them create this superior experience are investors like Hyderabad Angels who invested Rs 2 crore. Ram claims that while the money is being invested in product development, sales and marketing, Edutor Technologies has already grossed revenue of Rs 2 crore through content subscription and sales of software licences.

Ram: The content subscription fees are anywhere between Rs 1,000 to Rs 1,500 depending on the grade. We currently cater to students from third grade to 12th grade and we serve more than 4,000 students so far in Hyderabad, Bangalore and Delhi. In terms of subscription, it is Rs 1,000 to Rs 1,500 and the tablet anywhere can range from Rs 5,000 to Rs 8,000 depending on the configuration.

Ram has been able to keep costs low by leveraging existing commercially available technologies that are used worldwide. A 45-member team works on content engineering and development. Ram says that selling the idea of a smart classroom has been his biggest challenge yet.

Ram: In the next 12-18 months targets I have to continue to improve the product, make it a lot faster, seamless and integrated with cloud solution. We wish to reach out to a larger audience and expand to tier-I, tier-II and tier-III cities in the next 12- 18 months.

The team at Edutor now plans to sell over 15,000 tablets and reach a turnover of Rs 10 crore by next year. In three years, it aims to reach out to a million users.

source: http://www.moneycontrol.com / Home> News / by CNBC-TV18 / January 15th, 2012

Radio studio visit has kids on song

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Education

Hyderabad:

Sophisticated equipment, cool microphones and headphones, soundproof cabins and the trademark eye-catching ‘On air’ signs left the young participants of the Radio Mirchi studio visit fascinated. The event, a part of TOI’s Hyderabad for Kids campaign, was held on Tuesday at the Radio Mirchi office in Begumpet. It gave 75 kids the rare opportunity to step inside a radio station office and witness its inner workings.

From five-year-olds to 18-year-olds, the participants were so eager to see the studio and meet the radio jockeys and professionals that many of them turned up before time at the venue. After the names of all the participants were registered, they were divided into four batches and taken into the studios one batch at a time. Once inside, the kids couldn’t help but stare wide-eyed in amazement at all the studio equipment and the heavy soundproof doors as their guide B Bharathi, a radio jockey (RJ), explained them about what exactly happens there. They were first taken into the live studio from where all the live shows were aired. The participants’ excitement levels soared when they realised that they were actually walking into the studio while a show was being aired. RJ Dheeraja, who was in the middle of her show, welcomed the kids into the studio when a song was being played.

They were shown the screen on which the detailed log of songs, advertisements and jock talk, i.e. when the RJ speaks, was displayed, the switches that control the volume, the phone used to take listeners’ calls and the signature headphones worn by the RJ. Kids were even allowed to stay in the studio while the RJ went live on air and took a couple of calls from listeners. Many captured the RJ speaking into the microphone live on their phone cameras, vowing to show it to their friends back home.

The group was then shown the back-up studio wherein all the recorded shows and segments were recorded and edited. They even took turns saying a couple of lines into the mike, including the popular tagline of the station. Just when they thought they had seen it all, the participants interacted with R Kiran Kumar, a sound engineer and the man behind the popular comic character named ‘Breaking news Baburao’ and Yashwanth Nag, music composer of the Telugu film Neeku Naaku Dash Dash.

Talking about his experience at the event, eight-year-old Vedant A said, “I was so excited when I came to know that I will get to visit a radio station. The entire experience was mind blowing. I will boast about this to all my friends and tell my teacher too about it.” The RJs also said they had a great time with the enthusiastic children. B Bharathi said, “It’s nice as the young kids were so enthusiastic to know about the functioning of a radio station. Many of them had very microphone-friendly voices and a distinct style. I cleared their misconceptions about a radio station having only RJs and told them about the various career opportunities here. Such events give them a good exposure to these fields; it is a great initiative.”

source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / Home> City> Hyderabad> Collections / TNN, May 30th, 2012

Entrepreneur workshop

Education

Hyderabad:

Butterfly Fields, Hyderabad in association with BizSmart Global, USA will organise a unique management and an entrepreneurial workshop for students in the age group 11-17 at ISB Hyderabad from June 4 to 9.

Aimed at providing an early exposure to students, this workshop will teach essential entrepreneurial skills including financial analysis, brainstorming, leadership, collaborative teamwork, competitive analysis, design thinking and public speaking. Real life projects from companies will be used at the workshop and the student teams will analyze them and come up with entrepreneurial business plans. There will be graduation certificates for all the participants and awards for the winners in this project-based competition for school students. Bryan Cockel, Curriculum Director, Stanford Camp will be in Hyderabad to conduct the workshop.

At the Workshop the students will, learn the secrets of Apple CEO Steve Jobs, practice negotiation, problem solving, finance, develop creative thinking and public speaking skills, innovate or improvise products for real life companies and pitch business plans to real investors.

During the workshop, the selected students will be divided into teams, which will work on live projects over the course of the workshops. Teams will come up with their ‘business plans’ with the help of facilitators and workshop faculty. These will then be presented, on the final day, to the jury for judging and selecting the winners. One enrolled student will win full tuition to attend Camp BizSmart, USA at Stanford University.

The workshop will be held at the Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad, from June 4-9, from 9 am to 4 pm. The cost of the workshop is `20,000.

Application and detailed brochure can be downloaded at www.butterflyfields.com

Interested applicants can contact: 98665 61690.

source: http://www.ibnlive.in.com / Home> South> Southern News / The New Indian Express, Express News Centre / may 29th, 2012

Constitution has stood the test of time: law college principal

Education, Uncategorized

Principal of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar College of Law V. Kesava Rao giving a lecture on ‘Indian democracy at the cross roads’ – “Has the Constitution failed us” at the Visakhapatnam Public Library in Visakhapatnam on Saturday. Director of the Centre A. Prasanna Kumar and Prof M. Nalini of the Department of Politics and Public Administration of AU, are seen. Photo:C.V.Subrahmanyam. / The Hindu

‘Red tape, black money, and corruption are eating into vitals of democracy’

Crime in politics and farce in election system in India have created a vacuum of morality, observed Principal and Dean of Andhra University Law College A. Kesava Rao here on Saturday.

Delivering a talk on ‘Has the Constitution failed us?’, arranged by Gayatri Vidya Parishad’s Centre for Policy Studies at Visakhapatnam Public Library, he shared his views and experiences about how good governance was better than self governance and how our Constitution had at many times been tested when assaults had been made on the fundamental rights in the Constitution.

He highlighted the ways in which the Constitution had protected our nation till date either by restricting political chaos with the help of judiciary or by safeguarding the rights and interests of the media.

Expressing disappointment over how three elements — red tape, black money, and corruption — failed our Constitution, he said they deprived us of the fruits of the vision our leaders had envisioned for us.

REMEDIAL MEASURES

Professor in the Department of Politics and Public Administration, Andhra University, M. Nalini, who spoke on ‘Measures for course correction’, put forth a few remedial measures for a better democracy.

She focused on constructive measures such as structural changes, radical decentralisation of power from unions, improvement in the quality of democracy, restricting the malfunctioning of democracy, educating the public, facilitation of public hearing, formation of an accountable coalition body, improvement in the responsiveness of masses and need for extensive discussion of issues like treaties and policies in the parliament in her speech.

CPS Director A. Prasanna Kumar spoke on ‘Non-Alignment 2.0′ – a foreign and strategic policy for India framed by eight prominent scholars and released in January 2012.

Eliminating poverty, utilising human resources, giving significance to inclusive growth, upholding values and preserving our moral and ideological capital were the challenges faced today, he pointed out.

source: http://www.TheHindu.com / News> Cities> Visakhapatanam / May 27th, 2012

Child prodigy clears SSC at 11

Amazing Feats, Education, Inspiration /Positive News and Features, Records, All

Kasibhatta Samhita

Kasibhatta Samhita is a child prodigy for sure. When lakhs of 16-year olds have failed to obtain the all important pass grade in the SSC exam this year, this 11-year old girl created history of sorts by clearing the examination with an impressive 8.8 Grade Point Average (GPA).

Said to be the youngest ever to clear the 10 class examinations in the State, the 5 class student of Nalanda Schools in Vengalarao Nagar here obtained special permission to write the SSC exams and surprised everyone. Though the new grading system will not reveal her marks, she has probably scored highest in Maths subject.

No stress

The impressive part was she didn’t go through the stress generally associated with the public exams. “I was pretty confident as I cleared several internal tests of my school and did pretty well,” she said. The thought of writing SSC examinations was infused by her teachers who realised her potential in the class.

“She is a special talent and we nurtured it carefully,” says Suryanarayana Raju, director of the Nalanda Group. Realising her potential, the school offered her free education.

Samihita says her parents role has been immense. Her father L.N. Kasibhatta, who used to work for Boeing in the USA, left the cushy job and moved to India seeing her child’s potential. “I wanted her to study in India and just shifted. Her amazing memory skills and understanding capabilities surprised me.

At the age of two she could tell the capitals of 200 countries,” says the proud father. Her mother Geeta, who works with Satyam, reminds that she is not a book worm. In fact, she enjoys playing with her friends like any normal child.

Samhita proudly shows the appreciation letters from former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam and Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, to whom she had written a letter suggesting measures to improve Indian economy. What will she do now?

“Mr. Abdul Kalam is my inspiration and I want to be a scientist like him,” she says adding that she wants to make India proud with her achievements.

source: http://www.TheHindu.com / News> Cities> Hyderabad / by R. Ravikanth Reddy / Hyderabad, May 25th, 2012

Students don doctor’s coat

Education, Science & Technology

Programme to expose students to real hospital conditions ends at Yashoda Hospitals

For a fleeting moment the schoolchildren donned the role of seasoned doctors and strutted around the hospital like professionals. Some interacted with patients. A few recorded their experiences by furiously noting down points in their notebooks. Others were busy soaking-up information thrown at them by the super-speciality doctors.

A unique programme to expose students, aspiring to become doctors, to real hospital conditions concluded at Yashoda Hospitals on Thursday. The four-day programme, between May 20 and 24 at all the branches of the group, gave an opportunity to students to participate in interactive academic sessions with doctors, classroom sessions, view surgery videos and lectures from senior hospital doctors.

“My dream is to become a doctor and I was desperate to attend this camp for first hand experience of working at hospitals. After four days, I realised that the work of a doctor is very challenging. But it gives a lot of satisfaction. I have to really work hard for a seat in medicine,” said Rachana, a student from St. Ann’s, Mehdipatnam.

Many from Bangalore, Mumbai and Chennai also participated in the camp. “I was keen to attend the camp and learn from senior doctors. I wanted to get a feel of life while working as a doctor. They even taught us how to check the blood pressure and understand lab reports in camp,” said Spandana Tammiraju, a participant from Bangalore.

The camp attracted 4,000 entries of which 90 students, belonging to class 9 and 10 were selected. In addition to Hyderabad, students from Khammam, Karimnagar and Nalgonda also participated.

Students were given a kit consisting of a bag, pen writing pads including a doctor’s apron. Participation certificates were handed over to the students on the concluding day of the camp on Thursday.

source: http://www.TheHindu.com / News> Cities> Hyderabad / by Staff Reporter / May 25th, 2012