A group of former child laborers on Wednesday sent Diwali greetings to United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Leader of Opposition Sushma Swaraj, adding that parliamentarians should take up the issue of education.

They said children like them had their hopes pinned on MPs for effective implementation of the Right to Education (RTE) Act.

Brought together by NGO National Coalition for Education (NCE), the group of 35 children – all aged between 10-16 met more than 100 MPs during the monsoon session of parliament to mount pressure on them to take up the issue of education.

Jainab, a 13-year-old who is member of the group, said, “When we met the parliamentarians, we raised questions on out-of-school children, budget spending on education, infrastructure in schools and the implementation of the Right of children to Free and Compulsory Education Act.”

Based on their discussions, many related questions were raised by MPs in both houses of parliament. They will meet them again during the next session, which begins Nov 9 so that the issue is not forgotten.
According to an official of NCE, “as many as 343 questions were raised on the topic of education” during the monsoon session.”

The parliamentarians who met the children included Sushila Saroj, Narayan Singh Amlabe, and Usha Verma.

The children also sent their greetings to editors of national dailies and voluntary organizations, besides parliamentarians.

An education department spokesman said that cases have come to light in Faridabad district where selections were made without following due procedure and some appointments were made in 2008 when a total ban on appointments was in force.

He said that the department has directed removal of all guest teachers appointed after enforcement of the ban and also of those guest teachers who were appointed without following due procedure or those who do not have proper qualifications.

He said that explanation of the then district education officers (DEOs) and principals has been called.

In 2006, with a view to ensure that studies of the students did not suffer due to shortage of teachers, the department had authorized heads of institutions and department officials to assess the shortfall of teachers keeping in view the enrolment of students and engage teachers as guest faculty wherever the enrolment rate necessitated the provision of faculty.

“The objective of the policy was to ensure that the studies of children did not suffer,” the spokesman said.

Currently, 16,047 guest teachers are working in government schools in the state.

The spokesman said that in the light of major irregularities in appointments of guest teachers, all the district education officers have been directed to scrutinize all appointments, including the educational qualifications of these guest teachers.

Etisalat announced on Thursday that it has collaborated with Blackboard Inc., a technology-enabled education service provider, to start m-education in Abu Dhabi University by January 2011 as a pilot project.

The Blackboard Mobile Learn solution will enable students and teachers to gain instant access to their courses and content on their cell phone.

Powered by Etisalat’s 3.5 G network that covers over 99 percent of the UAE, the system will be compatible with any mobile device, including Android phone, BlackBerry, iPhone and iPad.

The agreement was signed between Abdulla Hashim, Senior Vice President, Business Solutions at Etisalat, Mika Alapiessa, Senior Vice President of Blackboard, and Terrence Motiuk, the Vice Chancellor of Abu Dhabi University.

“This is an historic moment for not just Etisalat, but for the entire education community in the UAE, as we are elevating the education delivery mechanism to a new level,” Abdulla Hashim said.

According to Sibal, the aim should be that in the manner of neighborhood schools, there should be neighborhood libraries and reading rooms. He gave this suggestion to the Task Force that has prepared the Draft National Book Promotion Policy while speaking at a Round Table held to discuss the policy.

He added that “the model of libraries/reading rooms being followed in Tamil Nadu (pointed out and praised by some members of the round table) could be looked at by the Task Force to be incorporated in their report. He also said that state governments would have to be involved for this.”

He also pointed out to the publishing industry that a huge opportunity awaits them in the publishing of e-books, especially for children’s books that can be illustrated. He further added that the vast scope of translations of books in India from one language to the other.

The Round Table was attended by stakeholders including publishers, authors, academicians and representatives from the Ministries of I&B and Culture, among others.

“Instructions have been issued to prepare mid-day meal at the same place for the primary and upper primary schools being run in the same campus,” said the minister.

“Special care is also being taken so that clean and hygienic food could be provided to the children,” she added.

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“India needs many more health professionals, of different categories, to fill the huge shortfall in the health workforce,” the prime minister said, addressing the 38th convocation of All India Institute of Medical Sciences in the national capital.

“A new scheme has been approved for strengthening and upgrading state government medical colleges to enable them to increase their intake at the post-graduate level. The scheme has the potential of adding about 5,000 post-graduate seats, starting with the 2012 academic session,” he said.

Saying that the government has taken several steps to augment the availability of healthcare professionals, the prime minister highlighted that work on setting up six new AIIMS-like institutions and strengthening several medical colleges is well under way.

He also said that norms for starting medical colleges have been rationalized to encourage establishment of medical colleges in un-served and under-served areas.

“A scheme has been launched for setting up 269 nursing colleges in districts that do not have any nursing college and which have poor health indicators. To boost the availability of quality paramedical manpower, a scheme has been approved for establishing a National Institute of Paramedical Sciences and for creation of nine regional institutes, besides supporting state government medical colleges conducting paramedical courses,” he added.

The prime minister said that the focus needed to be on rural areas which still lacked qualified healthcare professionals.

“Whether it is child mortality, immunization coverage, maternal mortality or awareness of HIV-AIDS, rural populations lag far behind their urban counterparts. This is partly due to inadequate availability of health services in rural areas but it is also a reflection of the lower levels of education and income which are important social determinants of our nation’s health,” he said.

He added that the National Rural Health Mission, the Right to Education, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and the measures being taken to provide food security are, therefore, complementary initiatives intended to protect and promote the health of the rural populace.

Efforts are a foot to increase the allocation to healthcare and the Eleventh Five Year Plan (2007-12) envisages an increase in public expenditure on health to at least 2 percent of GDP, he said.

According to MCD officials, none of the students from MCD schools have been invited to be a part of the cultural programmes of the Commonwealth Games. Also, Shera, the official mascot for the games has not visited any of the MCD schools.

Mahendra Nagpal, chairman of the MCD education committee informed that no students from MCD schools have been involved with the games at any level.

“Even the Games’ mascot Shera has visited only big schools, exhibiting complete indifference towards municipal schools that have students from the lower strata of the society,” he said.

While MCD schools have been made to take the backseat for the upcoming Commonwealth Games, students from other private schools such as Mount St. Mary, Delhi Public School, Air Force Bal Bharti etc. have been giving regular song and dance performances at the Games’ Village for international athletes and other delegates.

School students of some private schools will also perform at the opening and closing ceremonies for the CW games.

A senior official from the education departments also stated that students in foreign countries play a major role in such sporting extravaganzas. However, for the CW Games in Delhi, even the Queen’s Baton Relay was not taken to schools.

“The students that study in municipal schools usually come from economically weaker backgrounds and would not have been able to afford the tickets to see the games. The least the government could have done was to provide complimentary tickets for MCD school students so that they could learn something about the Games as they are happening for the first time in Delhi,” said the official.

The function was supported by the UNICEF and the National rural Health Mission and organized by the Department of Pediatrics of AMU. AMU Registrar V.K. Abdul Jaleel was the chief guest at the occasion. The guests of honor at the occasion included Faculty of Medicine Dean S. Abrar Hasan along with Principal and Chief Medical Superintendent M. Ashraf Malik.

Prof. Jaleel appreciated the efforts of Prof. S. Manazir Ali for bringing the prestigious resource centre to the Department of Pediatrics and congratulated the participants for completing training. He also distributed the certificates of participation to the participants.

Prof. S. Manazir Ali, Coordinator and Chairman of the Department of Pediatrics gave the overview of department and highlighted the projects running in the Department from different funding agencies (UNICEF, NRHM, ICMR, WHO) to provide better child health care.

He pointed out that 22 lakh children die under age of five years every year in India, which means that more than 6000 children every day and more than 250 children every hour die in India.

Prof. Ali also mentioned that malnutrition is more common in India than in sub-Saharan Africa. One in every three dying malnourished children in the world lives in India. S. Abrar Hasan and M. Ashraf Malik also addressed the valedictory function and appreciated the efforts of the Department of Pediatric Chairperson Tabassum Shahab.

The seven and nine-inch Linux-based touch screen gadget priced at Rs.1,500 has all the basic features, including a built-in key board, a two GB RAM memory, Wi-Fi connectivity, USB ports and is powered by a two-watt system for use in power deficit areas. The device is likely to be available next year.

Emphasizing Intel’s efforts in this direction, he said, the company has developed several solutions for the education sector. The company, in collaboration with the National Association for Blind, has recently developed open-source computer software for the visually-impaired.

The Intel president handed over a laptop fitted with the software to a visually impaired student here who topped last year’s board exams. “Technology doesn’t differentiate and stands up to challenges,” he said, after handing over the laptop to the student here in Shillong, the capital of Meghalaya.

Vishakantaiah said the country must lay emphasis on the education sector more so on higher education and research for its overall development. “The IT boom of the 90′s can only be sustained through continued research and higher education,” he said.