Odisha HRD

Summer camps for kids in Bhubaneswar – Sambada

4 comments May 14th, 2008

Primary education in Orissa: an op-ed in Samaja

The op-ed writer, a retired school teacher, analyzes the problems  and suggests the following steps to be taken immediately:

• Require that teachers in govt. primary school have a qualification of a Bachelors degree rather than the current requirement of a Matric + CT.
• Establish a model primary school (similar to Novodaya Vidyalayas) in each block.
• Teach English from the first grade.
• Have kindergarden class in each primary school and integrate playing with studying in this class and have attractive text books.

1 comment May 12th, 2008

Vedanta adopts 400 Anganwadis

Update: Hindu also has a detailed report on this.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Pioneer.

As part of its ongoing Corporate Social Responsibility exercise, Vedanta Aluminium Limited (VAL), Lanjigarh, has adopted all the 400 Anganwadis in six blocks of Kalahandi district under a project, Bal Chetna, in association with Sterlite Foundation and Government of Orissa through private-public partnership.

… The people were quite happy and enthusiastic about the new project, Bal Chetna, which will take care of their children’s health, nutrition and early education. Vedanta has already earned a good name for successfully operating 32 Child Care Centres with 1,139 children in the 18 peripheral villages at Lanjigarh. With free uniforms, nutritious midday meals, afternoon snacks and proper grooming, these centres have already laid a solid foundation for nurturing the future generation.

People are sure that children of areas beyond the peripheral villages and those of the entire district will now have access to similar facilities that can ensure a better future for them. The Collector said the Bal Chetna project would not only ensure a bright future for children but also open direct and indirect growth opportunities for the local youth. VAL vice-president Dr Mukesh Kumar said the company’s objective of taking up the project is to significantly upgrade the Anganwadi services under the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS).

Vedanta intends to bring in visible improvement in the quality of education of the children, especially, the underprivileged, in the age group 0-5 years, by providing five-fold services that include play way method of learning, nutritious food, improvement in health status with focus on anaemia reduction and logistic support like education materials.

May 11th, 2008

PIB: Educational Complex in Low Literacy Pocket for Development of Women Literacy in Tribal Areas

Following is from http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=38541.

Rajya Sabha 

  No project has been sanctioned in the last three years (2005-06 to 2007-08) in districts other than identified low literacy districts and areas having Primitive Tribal Groups (PTG) girls population under the scheme “Educational Complex in Low Literacy Pocket for Development of Women Literacy in Tribal Areas”, revised and renamed as “Strengthening education among ST girls in low literacy districts” in 2007-08.

            The details of identified districts under the scheme “Educational Complex in Low Literacy Pockets for Development of Women Literacy in Tribal Areas” in which the projects were sanctioned during the last three years is annexed.

            The Government is implementing the Literacy Programmes of National Literacy Mission in 597 districts of the country with special focus on female literacy, a targeted scheme of strengthening education among Scheduled Tribe girls in low literacy districts, as well as, the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan with specific components to improve girls education in all districts of the country.

            This information was given by the Minister of State for Human Resource Development, Shri M.A.A. Fatmi in reply to a question in Rajya Sabha today.

…..

HB/ SB/PB

Annexure

May 7th, 2008

Sushree group of institutions in Balangir

Their web page is http://www.sushreetech.com/sushree.htm. At present they manage the following programs:

• Diploma in Engineering
• ITI
• Nursing
• Plus 2 science: Pioneer reports that they are in the process of making their plus 2 college a residential college.

May 5th, 2008

NCERT and Tamil Nadu boardBooks available free on-line

See http://www.ncert.nic.in/textbooks/testing/Index.htm for the NCERT books (Thanks to Abi for the pointer.) See http://www.textbooksonline.tn.nic.in/Default.htm for the Govt. of Tamil Nadu text books.

5 comments April 27th, 2008

Science magnet school as part of IMA? Not yet, but a precursor.

Following is from Samaja.

April 21st, 2008

ODM +2 Science residential school in Patia

17 comments April 21st, 2008

Two new Plus two Science colleges in Bhubaneswar: IHSE of ITER and Naidu’s

Last year’s list is at https://www.orissalinks.com/?p=283. Following are the ads of two new ones:

• IHSE (Plus 2 science college of ITER)
• Naidu Plus 2 science college

1 comment April 10th, 2008

God help Oriya medium education: Op-ed in Samaja

April 6th, 2008

HDF (Human Development Foundation) making a B-School with difference

The Chairman of HDF is Dr. Dhanada Mishra, Ph.D in Civil Engineering from University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Among other credentials, Dhanada is the state coordinator of Pratham, an AID Saathi, SEEDs board member and a decent human being. He is the Chairman of the Human Development Foundation (HDF), which is in the process of establishing a business school with difference. With him at the helm of the HDF School of management, HDF’s vision of "an empowered and proactive community enriched by quality human resources" and mission of "facilitating a participatory movement to strengthen development initiatives by promotion of quality human resources and encouragement of shared leadership", and with Dhanada as the chairman of the board of trustees of HDF, I think this B-School will not only be a top-notch B-School in the country but will also be a B-School with difference. To understand what I mean by a B-school with difference, let me copy and past the Chairman’s message below.

Dear prospective students;

Welcome to HDF School of Management!

As you consider your choices for higher education in Management Studies, I would like you ponder for a moment about the kind of institution that you would like to spend two precious years of your life in. As you look at the options I am sure you will realise that you are faced with two very stark choices. On one hand you have public sector institutions offering programs at affordable costs to students selected in highly competitive admission process. It is no doubt that some of these institutions are world-class. Unfortunately, most of the public sector institutions provide poor environment for overall growth of the individual in the sense that they lack the entrepreneurial spirit which is reflected in weak placement effort, lack of up-to-date curriculum, weak industry linkage and so on. These aspects are more pro-actively addressed by the second group of growing number of institutions promoted by edupreneurs in the last one and half decade. However, it may not be an exaggeration to say that most of these second set of institutions are characterised by high fees, unethical commercialisation, lack of transparency and poor quality.

In the above scenario, Human Development Foundation (HDF) is making an attempt to create a third alternative where the best characteristics of public and self-financed education can be offered to the students. The Foundation itself is based on the deep concern of a set of individuals for the over-all development of the society through creation of high quality and ethical human resource to tackle our myriad problems. The School of Management is but one of the several ventures to offer students high quality education at a modest fee. It is driven by highly qualified and motivated faculty. It provides opportunity to students for exposure to social sector development projects for hands-on feel for one’s responsibility towards society beyond career aspirations. Thus, it aims to create a balanced, competent and wholesome individual equipped with the best tools of the trade, ready to engage with the society be it through the corporate sector or through the development sector.
The vision of the foundation, ‘an empowered and pro-active community’, can only be achieved by creation of high quality human resource on a scale matching the enormity of our future needs. We believe that through our passion for this vision, hard work, team effort and dedication we will create an environment where you can achieve your true potential as a management professional of highest caliber ready to take on the world.

I look forward to meeting you in near future.

Dhanada Kanta Mishra, Ph. D. (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor)

1 comment April 5th, 2008

Samaja op-ed: Need to change the plus two curriculum in Orissa

March 25th, 2008

100 new schools in Puri district: Samaja

March 16th, 2008

Vacant faculty positions in Orissa universities and colleges to be filled by next academic year: Samaja

The article mentions the status of the three main universities of Orissa:

• Utkal University: Only 187 out of 340 faculty positions are filled
• Berhampur University: Only 113 out of 186 faculty positions are filled
• Sambalpur University: Only 130 out of 150 faculty positions are filled

Note that earlier we mentioned that Ravenshaw University is trying to fill 144 positions.

1 comment March 15th, 2008

KIIT international School: ad in Samaja

Its web page is http://www.kiit-is.org/. Other details:

• Information Brochure
• Application Forms
• Fee Structure

March 9th, 2008

St. Xavier’s schools across Orissa

St. Xavier’s high school group has established and is currently establishing many schools across Orissa and neighboring states. As per http://www.stxavierschools.org/aboutgroup.htm they have schools in Berhampur, Bhanjanagar, Cuttack, Balangir, Jagatsinghpur, Puri, Balasore, Rayagada, Jajpur Rd and Keonjhar. They are establishing schools in Cuttack-Bhubaneswar and Sunabeda. The Cuttack school is affiliated to CBSE board. The affiliation of the other schools is not clear.

16 comments March 1st, 2008