ISTE India’s awards for school excellence

The International Society for Technology Education (ISTE) India Foundation announced India’s first Presidential Academic Awards for Excellence in education on April 5. Inspired by His Excellency APJ Abdul Kalam, President of India, the award brings urban and rural schools onto a single platform for assessment of excellence. ISTE India Foundation also announced that chapters will shortly be established in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Jharkand. “The awards have been instituted with the objective of ensuring that every child in India has an equal chance to excel in school, and thereafter in life. In the new globalised era, it is only natural that we use a global vision as the foundation for evaluation. This initiative is the first of its kind in the country to benchmark excellence in schools using global criteria,” said Annamalai Muthiah chairman of the ISTE India Foundation, speaking on the occasion. Adds Asha Nair, governor, ISTE India-Karnataka Chapter: “To make the process transparent, categories for the award will be identified by educators at a series of symposiums across the six states where ISTE India has chapters. By June, initial nominations for the various award categories will be made at the district and state levels. ISTE India will then constitute a panel of eminent educators and leaders in the country for assessment of nominations in a year long study conducted in the nominated schools to evaluate and compare them by global standards.” ISTE India, a joint venture between Future Schools Foundation and ISTE (USA) has announced the awards as part of a larger initiative to bridge the gap and build peer-to-peer relationships between private and government schools. A stepping stone, this initiative will culminate in an annual International Summit for School Education. The first summit will be held at Pragati Maidan, Delhi in 2006, where the first National Awards will be announced. ISTE India is already the largest organisation of educational leaders in India and is expanding at the rate of one state chapter per month. BITS, Pilani-RIT “ISA research centre The Birla Institute of Technology & Sciences (BITS), Pilani (Rajasthan) and Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) New York have announced a collaboration to set up India’s first centre for applied research and professional excellence. Christened the BITS-RIT APEX centre, it is likely to become operational within the next three months in Bangalore and will provide infrastructure for the semiconductor industry. Comments Prof. Maheshwari, director of BITS-Pilani: “Semiconductor technology is a practical science with very high peaks and requires high-end expertise that is found only in small pockets within industry and academia across the globe. As India expects to increase its share of intellectual property content and move up the value chain in the semiconductor arena, it will increasingly pose a challenge and this initiative is among the many steps to help the industry effectively meet and address this challenge.” According to Rajendra Khare, chairman, ISA, with the inauguration of this centre, ISA’s initiative to foster innovation within the university system has received further impetus. “ISA has been a mentor…