English is No.2 medium in Indian schools

English has become the second largest medium in India's primary schools after Hindi. In year 2006, it was fourth behind Marathi and Bengali.

More details: timesofindia

NCERT studies mood of kids

NCERT is conducting a unique study to gauge the student's emotions in schools.

Students were asked to write critical incidents of their school life: one positive and one negative. Then there were incomplete sentences that children were asked to complete. These sentences ran thus: Going to school makes me ---, What I like myself as a student is ---, What I don't like myself as a student is ---, While learning in school I feel pressurised when ---, I do not like teachers who ---, I like the teacher when ---.

Results showed that three key emotions common in class VII, IX and XI were happy, good and interested. Three negative emotions were boring, sad and do not like.

For details: timesofindia

School Dropouts CRY

Many problems of the state's poor children were brought to the fore in an event organized by the NGO, Child Rights and You (CRY), where children were brought to Bangalore from across the state.

From DNA,
Rekha, 14, from Hassan district said, "I have studied till class 9. My teacher used to compare me with students from the upper castes, and ask me not to come to school at all.
Not just that, the school had no toilet or drinking water, and roof was the sort that might just cave in. I would like to study, but not at that school, not with that teacher."

There were at least 200 children at the public hearing, who poured out their complaints to a panel comprising CS Dwarkanath, chairperson, Karnataka State Commission for Backward Classes, Mathew Philips, director, South India Cell for Human Rights Education and Monitoring, (SICHREM), education activist Nandini and High Court advocate BT Venkatesh. The panel submitted its recommendations to CRY.

Three recommendations

The right of children to free and compulsory education should be extended to cover all children in the age group 0 - 8. Every habitation should have a school within one km.

Eduction is the responsibility of the state, and all children between 0-18 years should be able to avail it.

All schools should have teachers trained to teach children with disability. And all disabled children too should have easy access to schools. All children should be treated equally at school; stringent action should be initiated against school authorities found violating the provisions of the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act, 1989.

Allocate minimum of 10% of GDP to school education alone (10+2) Make human rights and gender education compulsory in school curriculum.

Let us hope something come out of this exercise.

Scrapping class X exam an experiment: PM

PM said in an interaction with school children to mark the birth anniversary of Jawaharlal Nehru that the issue of scrapping the class X exam is still in debate phase. He also said that this is an experiment and decisions should not be taken in haste.

In September, the HRD ministry had announced that the compulsory CBSE class X board exam will become optional from the next academic year (2010-11) while a grading system will be in place from the current year.

Microsoft launches shared resource computing

Microsoft launched its newest entry into the shared resource computing category: Windows MultiPoint Server 2010, an educational solution that extends the reach of technology in learning environments like classrooms, labs, and libraries by allowing multiple users to leverage the resources of a single computer, giving more students access to Windows technology that can help them to learn, share, produce, communicate and positively impact their future employability.

Designed for educational institutions with limited IT resources, Windows MultiPoint Server 2010 enables schools to access technology at a lower overall total cost of ownership with lower ongoing operations costs per user. More details here.

NComputing offers a similar device which enables muliple users to share the computing resources.

Intel Launches Text-to-Speech Mobile E-Reader For Disabled

Intel has launched the Reader, a mobile device that converts printed text to digital text and reads it aloud to the user. It s a paperback-sized device that can take a picture of printed text with its 5 megapixel camera and convert it to speech. The company hopes the $1,499 system will serve millions of people with dyslexia and difficulty seeing printed text.

Intel Reader uses an Atom processor and 4 Gbyte Intel flash drive as well as Intel's Moblin mobile Linux operating system. The 4 Gbyte card can hold 600 processed page or 500,000 raw text pages.

The Intel Reader aims to address a wide variety of ad hoc reading needs from books and newspapers to instructions and poster. Some existing electronic readers sport text-to speech software, but they don't support full speech-based menus or enlarge font sizes the way the Intel Reader does.

More details here.

NGO to reach underpriviledged children to teach English

Times Foundation has partnered NGO Yuva Unstoppable to reach English to every child across weaker sections of society.

English Unstoppable — an ambitious, three-month-long project to make underprivileged children read and write English — will be launched in Ahmedabad and Mumbai simultaneously on November 16, with a huge support from the corporate world. India Inc has agreed to send its employees to teach English at municipal schools in the two cities for two hours every week. Details here.