The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Call for public-private initiatives in education

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Apr 30, 2005

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Call for public-private initiatives in education

Staff Reporter

Innovative Teacher awards presented to 3 participants of Microsoft IT Academy

MICRO APPROACH: A teacher from Chittoor district sharing his experience at Microsoft IT Academy with the Minister for School Education, N. Rajyalakshmi, in Hyderabad on Friday. Photo: Satish H.

HYDERABAD: The Minister for School Education, N. Rajyalakshmi, on Friday appealed for more innovative public-private partnerships like the Microsoft Corporation (India) initiative "Project Shiksha."

Giving away the Innovative Teacher awards to three participants of the Microsoft IT Academy, as part of its global "Partners in Learning" programme, she was amazed at the "transformation of teachers" after a 12-day innovation and IT-familiarisation module.

She went around classrooms at the academy in the Marri Channa Reddy Institute for Human Resources Development (MCRHRD) Institute.

Perfect honour

The three teachers were: Sthavara Vishweshwar, Zilla Parishad Boys High School, Vikarabad, Sunitha Yadav of the Government Boys High School, Mustaidpura, and Mallepally Narayana, Government High School, Kulsumpura.

The State Director, District Primary Education Programme, K. Chandramouli, said that thanks to private partnership initiatives, the day was not far when every student would have access to computers in school. Those interested could access www.vidyanidhi.org and contribute their mite, he said.

The Director-General, MCRHRD Institute, A.K. Parida, said "Project Shiksha" had become a part of the institute's training initiative and said if it so wished, Microsoft could use the exclusive satellite channel to reach out to more teachers.

Project Shiksha

The Director, Public Sector, Microsoft Corporation India, Nandu Pradhan, said under "Project Shiksha," a five-year initiative, the Microsoft IT Academy would train 80,000 teachers, of which 27,000 had been covered.

From January 2004, about 19,000 had been trained in Andhra Pradesh alone thus far, he said.

Giving details of a Microsoft competition on IT innovations in the classroom, he said of the 1,200 entries received from teachers all over India, 10 had been shortlisted and had participated in the Asia-Pacific round in Singapore.

Savitri Dugtal from Uttaranchal would represent India at the global finals in Redmond, USA.

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