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Those students who wish to join the BPO sector which is developing at a very fast pace, they can now have the required training in the school itself.

This comes in the wake of the introduction of the special course related to BPO which will start in class 11^th when the session reopens. This action is being taken in Ranchi in Bihar where all CBSE schools are providing this course to the students free of cost to make them fare better in the fast-growing BPO world.

The program is called the Business Processing and Outsourcing Programme and is available for the students of the commerce stream. The main focus of this course would be on various facets of BPO which include advertising, technical up gradation, customer relation management, customer satisfaction. In addition to the theory, it is also proposed that students will be taken on sites of call centres to provide them training in practice as well. Just after completing their Plus Two examinations, the students will be able to take up this upcoming profession.

This course has been developed to give the students a career option which they can take up right after school. It has been developed by the curriculum development committee under the chairmanship of G.C. Sharma who is the director of BLB Institute of Financial Markets. Framework of the course and also the learning tools has been developed by the Central Institute of Vocational Education.

There has been seen an increase in the multi-national companies like ADP, IBM Global Services, Accenture, Convergys, etc which have developed the BPO sector. Also, there are many Indian companies too which are big names that have proven their presence in the market. These include WNS Global Service, Genpact, ICICI OneSource, etc. which provide a good opening for students in the BPO sector. These would provide a good platform for the encashment of their job skills in which they have been trained beforehand.

NComputing, located in California, is a provider of low-priced computing solutions. The company has been selected to provide computer access to nearly 1.8 million students across Andhra Pradesh. This educational initiative would benefit students of nearly 5,000 schools. Andhra Pradesh would be contracting NComputing to provide nearly free IT education by creating low-cost computer labs in these schools. The AP government would benefit as these labs would use nearly 90% lesser electricity when compared to traditional computer labs.

These labs would also allow nearly seven users to share and work on one PC, simultaneously. The system would use Microsoft Windows Server operating system and Microsoft Office Suite. This is an excellent example of ground-breaking and resourceful outsourcing model. This model is being referred to as Build, Operate and Transfer or BOT — the provider installs, staffs and manages the lab.

Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan has decided to set up centres of Gandhi Institution of Information Technology or the GIIT at Guwahati and Jorhat in Assam and other regional centres in Kohima, Agartala, Shillong and Gangtok. BVB already boasts of 30 GIITs all over the country and has become a recognised brand in the field of affordable IT education with its centres spread in Asia and even Europe.

This is being done as a part of an initiative to provide subsidised or free IT education to the students of north-eastern parts of India. These centres aim to provide three months of free IT education to the local youth in these regions in the beginning. The institutes are being funded by the Prime Minister’s Special Fund.

Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan (KVS) have decided to provide online question bank and online test facility for its students. The database of question bank will be based on Higher Order Thinking System (HOTS) , a concept by Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to develop analytical and logic building skills of the students.

After the implementation of this scheme, students of KV’s will be able to assess their analytical skills by taking online tests of themselves. The automated test will randomly pick questions from the question bank and will present it to the student. A complete test report will also be generated after successful completion of the test.

This methodology of online tests will help students prepare better for various entrance examinations.

Famous US based combat aircraft manufacturing giant – Lockheed Martin has decided to invest a whopping $300,000 for research project in bio and nano-technology at IIT – Delhi.

The project duration is of one year and on successful completion, follow up projects may start. Research team will include eight professors from IIT and five experts from Lockheed Martin. The key research areas will be:

Nano-technology-enabled biological sensors
Biodegradable nonmaterial for medical treatment
Bio-filters for pollution detection

The patent issues are yet to be finalized, and IIT Delhi will reserve the right to publish the results of the research.

Selection list of candidates for PG Diploma in Software Technology/ Advanced Course in J2EE (SW-100/SW-101) has been declared by DOEACC Center, Calicut branch. The commencement of classes for the course will start from 4th August, 2008.

Selection List: PG Diploma in Software Technology/ Advanced Course in J2EE      (SW-100/SW-101)

All applicants must report at DOEACC Center, Calicut by 9:00 AM on 4th August, 2008, along with their original and attested photocopies of marks sheets and certificates.

To encourage and increase the healthy competition among students, Chandigarh government has gifted laptops to two government school students who have topped in class 12 in their city. Pankaj Kumar and Lakshay Manchanda have been chosen by the government to receive these rewards. One is from urban area and the other student is from rural area, to balance the distribution of the prize among all sections.

It is the first encouraging move of gifting laptops to toppers in India by the state government, and is welcomed by the education fraternity. Pass out percentages of government schools in Chandigarh have always been high ( 85+ percent in both 10th and 12th).

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) has announced to offer tele-education services to all its broadband subscribers. Subscribers will be able to avail this new service at a nominal rent of 250 Rs/ month.

The service will feature relaying of educational programmes and distribution of study material for engineering, management, medical and other competitive exams.

As the Internet penetration is increasing in the country, services like tele-education are opening new channels for the youth of this country, to get more relevant and more exhaustive information related to their studies.

Under the distance education programme, Tamil Nadu University has invited applications for its various undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. The last date for submitting the applications for all the courses is 30th September, 2008.

Students can apply for the following courses under distance education programme:

M.A : Tamil, English, History, Economics, Political Science, Public Administration,      Sociology
M.Sc Psychology, Mathematics
M.Com: Tamil & English Medium
M.B.A: English Medium
M.C.A : English Medium : MCA .MCA (Lateral Entry )
P.G.Diploma programs (One Year)
B.A, B.Sc And B.Com Programs
B.B.A Tamil and English Medium

Students can get detailed information on the university web site.

Admissions for Ph.D and M.Sc for the session 2008-2009 have been announced by Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU), Belgaum.

Application are available to students from 7th July onwards. Last date for submitting completed applications is 7th Aug, 2008.

Technical Aptitude Test Date : 14th Sept 2008 (Sunday)
Time : 11.00 am to 1.00 pm
Places : Bangalore & Belgaum

Candidates who have qualified for GATE or equivalent national level test are exempted from the technical aptitude test, but they still need to fill up the application forms for the same.

Kerala, The University College of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram has announced admissions for its prestigious B. Tech (Electronics & Communication) Programmes for the session 2008.

Admission Procedure Guide: B. Tech (Electronics & Communication)
Application Form: NRI QUOTA and LATERAL ENTRY

For detailed information about Admission procedure, visit Kerala University Official site.

Students, especially small children almost loathe about the daily homework assigned to them. The young minds sometimes envy their own teachers as they come in the classroom, teach and leave – no homework, no tests and no assessments. That may be true but not in the coming era where teachers themselves have to prepare a lot before coming to the classroom.

The textbook and dictation age is a thing of the past. Modern teaching aids like audio and video presentations demand more preparations from the teacher. Many schools have recently added such aids and techniques in the curriculum to provide to the students an all-inclusive learning package and environment.

In certain subjects like History and Sciences, there are may things that cannot be completely described on the blackboard or by oral recitation. One popular example is the development stages of living cells, functioning or various organs, organ systems, etc. Even though the teacher may carry a chart or draw a neat diagram on the board, but effective learning still misses out. A video presentation or short film gives the student a better learning experience as they can watch the actual phenomena and processes.

Teaching lessons are increasingly being provided on compact discs and digital video discs, and the content on the same is either viewed in the class or by the student at home. The teacher has to be sure to identify the main points or emphasize on these points so that children can assimilate the knowledge.

Three cheers to our teachers who are supposed to do a little viewing of the content at home and come prepared in the morning!

From September onwards, four new subjects will be introduced for Post Graduate Programme for Agricultural Business Management (PGP-ABM) at IIM-Ahmedabad. These changes are being introduced in the fifth term of the aforesaid programme.

Following domains will be covered in these four subjects:

Agriculture & Rural Policy Design
Negotiations in Agriculture
Inclusive Agriculture Business
Information Technology for Agriculture Development

The subjects have been incorporated in the curriculum after taking inputs from students and faculty. IIM-Ahmedabad maintains a metric for registrations of every subject. If registrations will fall short of the expectations, these subjects will be taken as projects by the students.

Aurangabad Centre of DOEACC has annouced admissions for M.Tech and diploma programmes.

Admission Notice: M.Tech and Diploma Programme 2008

You can also visit the DOEACC, Aurangabad site for more information.

Information technology has had a great time in India and to carry forward the boom, which at present seems to have lost its momentum, the IT companies are exploring new avenues.

Everonn Systems India Limited is an IT company, specialized in Knowledge Management, Education and Training. The company provides IT training and facilitation at different institutes. The latest update is that Everonn Systems has approached the Himachal Pradesh state government, to implement IT education in the senior schools.

The IT companies may start this trend of providing quality IT education in the senior schools. The scope for IT companies looks promising as the education sector is a massive one and can support a lot of such initiatives.

Also, implementing the procedures and building up the infrastructure can help the students to be better prepared for a promising career.

India is one country where skilled labor, especially in the IT sector, is globally recognized as topnotch and competitive. The English speaking IT professionals in India are preferred in the South Asia. Considering such an asset, the students that are soon going to start their professional lives.

IT companies can further help their own growth and sustenance by investing in this sector. School education is a cyclic process and its span is ever continuing By striking a good balance with the school institutions, the companies can do much better and for a long time.

The premier education and training institutes (IT) in the country do afford and in fact do hire these companies. The challenge however is to take them to the secondary education level.