Recognised Educational Courses Online

Online Education | Posted by admin
Nov 28 2011

The Internet boom is far from over, although it has been taking a slightly different slant in the past few years; hardly surprising as technologies advance and trends change. The World Wide Web is the largest resource of information in the whole world and whatever your needs the Internet can provide. What started as a bubble has soon become a massive tidal wave and online education is one of the areas that is still increasing, probably more than ever before.

You can shop online, you can watch TV online, and you can even book your holidays online or work online and now you can complete perfectly legitimate and recognised educational courses online. Far from being the alternative form of education used solely by working parents it is becoming just as popular with teenagers and professionals all around the world. There are no boundaries to learning when using the Internet. You can study a course that local colleges and educational institutions in your area don’t offer and you can do so without having to quite your job and leave home.

You don’t need to take three years to complete a course; you can often work at your own pace, fitting in around your commitments and according to your spare time.

What courses are on offer?

As well as courses designed primarily for completion on the Internet, many educational institutions are now leaning towards offering the major courses to be completed in the comfort of your own home. College degrees and graduate degrees are available in almost any subject you could imagine with many benefits over the traditional ‘classroom’ approach.

E-learning offers a vast array of topics too, from American History to Zoology and everything in between. Perhaps you are in full time employment and want a change in career. Not many of us can afford to just give up work and go back to college so online education could be the perfect answer.

Maybe you are unemployed and can’t find work suitable for you or the qualifications and experience you have. Online education can offer you the opportunity to gain more qualifications without the expenses of travelling or accommodation.

Why should I choose an online education course?

There are many advantages to an online MBA degree. The courses are usually tailored to meet the different demands that are entailed within an online learning community. You are usually free to study at your own time and pace, so you have the opportunity to complete your chosen course quickly or as slowly as you want.

There are no travel costs involved with online education and no travel time whatsoever. The only time you will need to dedicate to your learning will be the time you spend studying and any trips to the library or other institution you may need.

Many jobs and careers demand a good working knowledge of the Internet, and by completing your course online you are already many steps closer to that end. You will have excellent knowledge on Internet research; always being able to find the information that is useful to you.

There are some factors you should consider when deciding whether to opt for online education or a more traditional classroom education. You will need a reasonably up to date PC, together with an Internet Connection. Fortunately, computer prices have dropped in recent years, so you can get a capable PC for little more than $300. If you consider using Ebay or buying a refurbished PC then you can reduce this price even more. Don’t forget, you will need a printer, operating software, word processing software and an Internet connection but again the price of these has dropped dramatically.

If you don’t have much working knowledge of a computer or the Internet you will need to find your way around at first and this can seem a daunting task for the beginner. Don’t panic, just stick with it and buy yourself (or borrow from friends or the library) books on how to use the software you are going to need. Once online the Internet has all of this information at hand, and the world becomes your playground.

A summary of online education.

Online education can help all people from all walks of like gain the education they want to better themselves or to advance in the career they already have. Whether you are a working parent or an unemployed bachelor, there are courses available for you to complete through online education.

Online education offers many benefits and few pitfalls when compared to the more traditional ‘classroom’ approach but you should carefully consider your options before jumping in.

There are costs associated with virtually all online education courses but these are usually little more than the costs to study at a college and when you consider that there are no travelling expenses and no extra living costs, you may find online education to be a much more financially viable option.

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Florida International University

University and College | Posted by admin
Jan 26 2012

The School of Hospitality and Tourism Management at Florida International University is known for its top rated programs, and has one of the highest ratings in the United States. There are over a thousand new undergraduate and graduate students who choose to enroll in Florida University’s School of Hospitality and Tourism Management each year. The school is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.

Each of the Bachelors, Masters, and Certificate programs are designed by combining classroom theory along with practical experience. In conjunction with industry administrators, this wildly popular Florida Institution has created unique internship experiences for their students. These internships allow students to use resort, airline, travel agency, and many other similar sites as practice labs. This enables students to get hands on experience that they would usually not get elsewhere until after graduation. The School works hand in hand with leaders in the business to create a curriculum that aligns with the most recent needs of the industry.

The School of Hospitality and Tourism Management at Florida International University is known for its quality of faculty members and curriculum. In addition to this, they have put together a strong Industry advisory board to ensure that their students are kept abreast of the latest information in the field. The school also requires each of its students to complete a total of approximately twelve hundred working hours in the industry before they can graduate to make sure each student is adequately prepared to join the hospitality world by the time they graduate. The institution also boasts a very high graduate placement record for its students, meaning that every student that graduates from the esteemed establishment is able to find employment in their specialty as soon as they graduate.

The School of Hospitality and Tourism Management has three major goals for its students. First, it is part of the Schools mission to have students become leaders in the industry. The school also teaches its students to perform meaningful research in order to add to the dynamic and ever evolving hospitality field. The School also wants its students to serve the local and worldwide community as well as the university in all their academic and professional endeavors.

Florida International University’s School of Hospitality and Tourism Management has gained international recognition for its excellence in the field of tourism. Due to its stellar status, the Chinese government chose Florida International University from a group of elite schools to partner with them in creating a hospitality and tourism campus in its third largest city, Tianjin. This partnership has created an amazing campus in China that allows for further development of China’s tourism business.

The tuition rates of Florida International University are on par with other universities in the United States. In state students will pay around a few thousand dollars a semester for a full-time class load. Out-of-state students will pay approximately thirteen thousand for a full-time semester. Books will add an additional money per year, and if you plan on living on campus there will be an extra fee per semester, which could amount to over two thousand dollars. Financial aid is available and should be applied for as early as possible in order to be processed in due time.

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Child with Learning Disabilities

Learning Disabilities | Posted by admin
Jan 26 2012

Remedial reading is often the first step for a child who is struggling. However, for many children with learning difficulties this simply magnifies their agony and multiplies their feeling of failure. Diet is also worth considering, mainly for the point of view of Attention Deficit Disorder, which can often be made worse by the child’s reaction to certain foods or chemicals.

Vision is one of the most overlooked areas of examination, because most people think that, if their child can see, there is absolutely nothing wrong with their vision. The crazy thing about this is that, compared to most other testing methods, it is often the easiest and least expensive thing to test in a child with learning disabilities. The great news is that, in many cases, it can provide the break through that your child with learning disabilities needs. Vision is the dominant sense in the classroom, and for almost every learning experience your child has. Over 80% of all information comes in through the visual system, which involves far more than simply seeing the page of print.

As a Behavioral Optometrist, I have dedicated my life to helping children with learning disabilities, and I have found that in the majority of cases I can help these children both with the appropriate lenses and with vision therapy, a specialized series of exercises and games to train the visual system and thus enable learning to become an easier task.

It makes sense that, if we train the right visual skills, we will see the learning ability of a child increase. So, for example, if they have trouble skipping lines or misreading words, training the child’s eye movements should enhance their ability to move their eyes effectively across the page, thus reading more fluidly. If they have trouble remembering spelling words, it makes sense that if we train and teach visual memory through visualization that they will be able to recall spelling words more effectively. The question for parent is, “where do I go to have the type of visual examination that tests for these things?” Most parents would realize that the average eye care professional does not perform these tests, they are looking at eye health and prescribing glasses.

Let me be frank; if your child has a learning disability then you need to get your child’s eyes tested, making sure that they are not long or short sighted. For the extra tests looking at the main areas of difficulty in children with learning disabilities, you will require something different.
And that is the purpose of this article. I am passionate about helping children with learning disabilities, and have developed a few short tests which can be down loaded from our site and performed in your own home. It can help by indicating if your child has difficulties in many extra areas of vision, and show you exactly how to improve their visual skills. If these tests indicate a deficiency, that our therapy program is guaranteed to improve the learning disabilities you struggle with in your child.

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Revitalizing Secondary Education Schemes in India

K-12 Education | Posted by admin
Jan 26 2012

Revitalizing secondary education

By Sadaket Malik

With the central government lobbing its ball to the state governments for the implementation of the several schemes  for the revitalization of the system of the secondary education in the country, the schemes of the access, equity, Mahila Samakhya, and quality in the field of secondary education has lost its very essence. Basic issues of quality, equity and access to secondary education in India still unresolved besides the central legislations by the Ministry of Human Resource development Govt of India. The expert committees were formulated by the Govt. to gauge the system and suggest the measures to universalize the whole system. The central governments own figures indicate that many as two-thirds of those eligible for secondary education remain outside the school system today. A Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) committee estimates that 88,562 additional classrooms will be required in 2007-08 and over 1.3 lakh additional teachers. The CABE is the highest advisory body relating to policy making in education in India. Figures put out by the Ministry of Human Resource Development’s Department of School Education and Literacy indicate that as many as two-thirds of those eligible for secondary and senior secondary education remain outside the school system today. While noting that adequate number of elementary schools is to be found at a reasonable distance from habitations, the ministry admits in its website that this is not the case with regard to secondary schools and colleges. The gross enrolment rate for elementary education in 2003-04 was 85 percent, but for secondary education, the enrolment figure stood at 39 percent.

Pertinently, the CABE report also notes that the benefits of India’s reservation policy in higher education are unlikely to reach those it’s intended for in the absence of a strong secondary education system. A large majority of children and youth belonging to SC and ST community  do not have access to secondary education; less than 10 percent of the girls among SCs and STs have access to the plus two stage. Without secondary or senior secondary education, benefits of reservation to SCs/STs will remain elusive,” the report says. These are questions that the CABE report tries to address. School systems, the report says, should strive for equality and social justice, transcending discrimination that may arise because of gender, economic disparity, societal norms on caste and community, location (urban area or rural), disabilities (physical and mental) and cultural or linguistic differences. However, these inequities seem bound to remain given the current circumstances, where the government involvement in secondary education is much less than what is expected of it. The Committee report says that almost 25 percent of the secondary schools today are private, unaided schools whose clientele comes only from the privileged sections of society. Expert opines that Private education has always played an important role we have different types of private secondary schools, such as private unrecognized, private recognized but unaided schools, and private, recognized and aided schools. In Kerala and West Bengal, it’s common to see private aided schools, which are schools run by private managements that receive government grants. Going by the Sixth All India Survey Data, the CABE report notes that private aided schools account for over 46 percent of all secondary school students. The overwhelming participation of the private sector in secondary education, however, in no way absolves the government of its many responsibilities. To improve access to secondary education, experts agree that the government should invest more money. Unfortunately, the Centre has baulked at involving itself even in primary education, more so when it has to be on a collision. course with private schools.

Similarly, though the CABE committee report advocates a common school system, the government seems to have already shown its disinterest.The CABE report was accepted in principle, but soon after, the Planning Commission diluted our recommendation that the typical secondary school should be like a Kendriya Vidyalaya. The Commission started saying that instead of Kendriya Vidyalaya norms, SSA norms could be extended to secondary schools. Such a move would result in parallel streams of education with poor quality being accepted as a part of secondary education. The CABE committee, incidentally, had worked out the expenditure that will be incurred if all secondary schools are managed like Kendriya Vidyalayas. The total costs in such a scenario do not exceed six percent of the GDP but that does not seem to have been enough to convince the government. The report does not mention how many additional schools will be needed to meet the future demand. However, it presents two estimates, one projection based on the 100 percent success of SSA and the other, the 75 percent success of the programme. In the case of the former, the report estimates that 88,562 additional classrooms will be required in 2007-08 and over 1.3 lakh additional teachers

A worrisome trend in government schools, undoubtedly a factor contributing to their poor performance, is the fact that almost 95 percent of the government grants go into paying staff salaries. There is no money for buying teaching learning materials, for cleaning or blackboards,” he explains. The ratio should be at least 80:20, with 20 percent of the grant being used for improving or creating infrastructure, he adds. To ensure that government schools are more efficiently managed, a committee comprising members from the neighborhood could be asked to take decisions concerning the school, suggests several experts  of CABE Committee. Experts opines that there are several examples of successful private-public partnerships. “There have been initiatives like DPS Delhi Public School being given the responsibility to run two-three government schools in Gurgaon in Haryana In this way, the private schools can manage the schools for a while and use their expertise to train teachers.

The educationists have a consensus that the children are actually walking out because there is no quality education. Poor children can ill-afford to spend their time in classes that are taken badly, or in schools that have no infrastructure or teachers. Instead of looking for the reasons that are behind the problem, the government appears to be trying to implicate parents or children for the ‘drop-out’ rates. The CABE committee report has already set down comprehensive norms that secondary schools should follow, ranging from having one classroom for 30 students, ensuring safe drinking water facilities and separate toilets for girls and boys to computer labs. Experts also suggest granting free ships or scholarships to those from disadvantaged backgrounds to encourage enrolment in secondary and senior secondary schools. The CABE report notes that expansion of secondary education can be achieved by setting up new schools, upgrading existing elementary schools into high schools by providing more infrastructure and adding to the facilities in existing secondary schools to accommodate more students.

In view of this, the Central and the State/UT governments must jointly initiate planning to implement the agenda of universal and free secondary education in the first phase by the year 2015 and then extend it to senior secondary education in the second phase by the year 2020. The conventional expectation from secondary/senior secondary education lies in its role in creating the necessary base for generating technical person power, raising the potential of a society in contributing to the growth of knowledge and skills and thereby enhancing the nation’s capacity to face the challenge of global competitiveness.

The no of  higher secondary schools has been raised to 50,273 with  1000112 teachers, and figure of secondary schools is 101,777 with 1082878 teachers. Official statistics reveal that the enrolment of secondary and higher secondary school level is  3.70  crore and the gross enrolment ratio is 39.91. The total dropout rate up to matric is 61.92 as on September 2004. The population of children in this age group has been estimated to be 88.5 million as per Census, 2001.Enrolment figures show that only 31 million of these children were attending schools in 2001-02,

However, Para 5.13 –5.15 of the National Policy on Education (NPE), 1986 (as modified in 1992) deal with Secondary Education. Para 5.13. of the NPE, inter alia states that access to Secondary Education will be widened with emphasis on enrolment of girls, SCs and STs, particularly in science, commerce and vocational streams. The disparity between boys’ and girls’ enrollment is particularly marked at the secondary stage. As per the latest data available, out of the total enrollment of 21.2 millions n 1991-92 (as on 30.9.91) at the secondary stage (Classes IX and above), the girls account for 7 millions only, i.e. mere 33 per cent of the total enrollment, whereas boy’s enrollment at this stage of education is 67 per cent of the total enrollment.

            Nevertheless, a significant progress is also made in all spheres of secondary education. More than 84 per cent habitations in 1993-94 had a secondary school/section within a distance of 8 km as compared to 70 per cent within 5 km.  The number of unserved habitations declined from 21 per cent in 1986-87 to 15 per cent in 1993-94.  During 1950-51 to 1999-2000, number of secondary & higher secondary schools increased from 7 thousand to 117 thousand.  The increase (16 times) is much more rapid than the corresponding increase in primary (3 times) and upper primary (14 times) schools.   In the latest decade (1990 to 99), more than 37 thousand secondary & higher secondary schools were opened. The ratio of upper primary to secondary schools also improved from 1.83 in 1950-51 to 1.69 in 1999-2000.

Keeping in view the dismal statistics of secondary education in the country, Ministry of HRD launched several schemes, like scheme for strengthening of boarding and hostel facilities for girl students of secondary and higher secondary schools. The scheme is being implemented by NGOs and of the state governments. A one-time grant non recurring  grant @Rs.1500/- per girl boarder for purchase of furniture (including beds)and utensils and provision of basic recreational aids, particularly material for sports and games, reading room equipments and books. And recurring Rs.5000/- per annum per girl boarder for food and salary of cook. Finally, The CABE Committee in June 2005 recommended that “there is no alternative acceptable to regular schooling of good quality to all the girls”. The Committee also felt that “incentives offered for promotion of girls education need to be revisited and measures taken need to be of such nature, force and magnitude that they are able to overcome the obstacles posed by factors such as poverty, domestic/sibling responsibilities, girl child labour, low preference to girl’s education, preference to marriage over the education of girl child, etc.” The key issues relating to secondary education highlighted in the Tenth Plan are: greater focus on improving access; reducing disparities by emphasizing the Common School System; renewal of curricula with emphasis on vocationalisation and employment-oriented courses; expansion and diversification of the Open Learning System; reorganization of teacher training and greater use of ICT. After merging several schemes like ET & CLASS scheme, a new Scheme called ICT Schools was launched for which the Annual Plan Outlay for 2006-07 was Rs. 67 crore. The intervention of the Central Government in Secondary Education has primarily been in two areas, (i) through apex level bodies and (ii) through various Centrally Sponsored Schemes. Central Government supports autonomous organizations like NCERT, CBSE, KVS and NVS and CTSA, the first named body for providing research and policy support to the Central and State Governments; CBSE for affiliating Secondary Schools and the remaining three for their own school systems. There are 929 Kendriya Vidyalayas (KVS) and 507 Navodaya Vidyalayas (NVS), and 69 Central Schools for Tibetans (CTSA).  Scheme of Vocationalistion of Secondary Education at secondary level to enhance individual Employability. Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) launched in 2007 is a mission-mode exercise to universalize secondary education in which the centre is all set to universalize the secondary education till 2020.

The irony is that the arguments on the part of HRD ministry on community participation in implementing such schemes are not encouraging. Government should initiate evaluation mechanism and core commission to evaluate the progress of the schemes and policies to support the education sector by community mobilization to revitalize the schemes and put the policies into practice.

The author can be contacted at sadaketmalik@rediffmail.com

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