Government to connect 6,000 colleges with fibre optics

Kochi, Feb 27 : Union HRD Minister Kapil Sibal said the government would connect 6,000 colleges under 800 universities in the country with fibre optics to build an international highway of information.

Inaugurating the Latin Catholic Samudaya Sangamam here, he said the project was expected to be introduced throughout the country in the next three to four years.

Stating that the object of the project was to provide information to each and every one in the country, the Minister said once the connectivity was through the information to each and every one would be made available free of cost.

The Minister also said the ministry would encourage the students living in coastal areas to choose their own course of study and the government would provide certificates on Central Board of Secondary Education(CBSE) system.

By doing this it would be able to give a right hand to lift these category of students from their backwardness, he added.

Mr Sibal also said the government would introduce new devices to know the quantity of fish concentrated in an area for the fishermen, which ultimately would help them to have big catch.

Earlier at a function in Kalamassery while pointing out that there will be a global opportunity as India would be providing the workforce of the world by 2050, he said the country would be the hub of knowledge.

Source:http://www.newkerala.com/news/world/fullnews-157226.html

Gove blames Labour for 'soft' subjects studied

Education secretary says Labour government 'betrayed a generation'

• Jessica Shepherd, education correspondent
• guardian.co.uk, Friday 4 February 2011 13.05 GMT
• Article history

Gove said he had warned the last government that state-school pupils were being 'misled' about qualifications. Photograph: Sang Tan/AP

Education secretary Michael Gove today blamed the Labour government for "betraying a generation" by allowing thousands of pupils to take "soft" subjects at school.

Gove was commenting on the Guardian's revelation that top universities are issuing guidance which acknowledges officially for the first time that they favour students who study traditional subjects at A-level.

A handbook compiled by the Russell Group, a lobbying group for Oxford, Cambridge and 18 other leading universities, confirms rumours that have circulated for years that they favour traditional academic subjects over newer ones such as business studies and photography.

Gove said he had warned the last government that state-school pupils were being "misled" about qualifications. "A generation have been betrayed by Labour ministers who denied poorer children the chance to go to top universities," he said today.

Gove said the government was trying to reverse the "dramatic" rise in the number of children taking "less rigorous, non-academic qualifications".

For the first time this year, annual league tables – published last month – measured schools' performance by the proportion of pupils who obtain the new "English baccalaureate". This is awarded to teenagers who achieve GCSEs in English, maths, a science, a foreign language and a humanity, such as history or geography, at grade C or above. "This reflects the subjects the Russell group universities have said they value most," Gove said.

In 2004, about 15,000 non-academic qualifications were taken in schools. By 2010, this had risen to about 575,000.

Andy Burnham, Labour's shadow education secretary, said that while a clear focus on academic rigour was important, society needed a broad view of success. "We must also focus more on developing routes into work for young people who don't plan to go to university. Michael Gove has very little to say to these young people, and his curriculum and league table reforms are sending a very clear message that vocational learning is second best," Burnham said.

"With youth unemployment at a record high, we need to equip young people with a broad range of knowledge and skills to help them enter the modern workforce."

Labour had made changes to focus the curriculum on English and maths, and the take-up of single sciences had increased "significantly" as a result of Labour policies, he said.

Burnham had previously accused Gove of foisting a vision of education from the 1950s on to students and schools. "It is a strange message indeed in this day and age to say it's OK to do Latin but not ICT," he said.

source :http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/feb/04/gove-soft-subjects