Author: Loknath Das

Hong Kong-listed Wisdom Education International Holdings, the largest private education group in southern China, said it had been approached by several local governments across the country to build schools amid mounting demand for better education. Li Jiuchang, the group’s chief operating officer, told the South China Morning Post the availability of land and quality teaching staff play an important role when it comes to the company deciding on opening schools. “It is not easy to find a large piece of land in a city’s downtown area to build a big school,” he said. “We will also assess the reserve of teaching staff in…

It took less than a day for a politician to blame the horrific shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on violent video games, and little more than a week for Donald “I’m the biggest fan of the Second Amendment” Trump to publicly make the connection. And now, even after yesterday’s bizarre televised meeting where he seemingly split from standard gun-protecting procedure, the president is apparently carrying on with this idea that violent media is just as much to blame for America’s epidemic of mass shootings as its lax gun-contol laws. In fact, he’s stepping up his efforts. At a press briefing today, White House…

The AI program used trial and error to uncover a quirk in the game’s code that let it score a huge amount of points. No human player of Q*bert is believed to have ever uncovered the tricks it used to win. The AI program was let loose on the video game by German researchers who are developing code that can learn. Suicide strategy Video games have proved popular with AI researchers because they are limited worlds in which success (high scores) and failure (losing the game) are easy to assess. This can help refine AI programs because those that score…

Exclusive figures lay bare drop in education spending in councils across Scotland Over two-thirds of councils have cut real spending since 2010-11, new figures obtained by Tes Scotlandshow. The figures, compiled by the councils, show that even with the money being pumped into local authorities by the Scottish government to boost disadvantaged pupils’ attainment, 23 of the 32 councils have cut their spending on education in real terms since 2010-11. One council, Shetland, has cut its spending by a fifth. Nine councils have cut their real-terms spending by around 10 per cent, ranging from 11.4 per cent in East Dunbartonshire to 8.4…

The Nova Scotia government has taken its first step toward reforming its education system with a bill to dissolve its seven English-language school boards and take principals and vice-principals out of the teachers’ union. The education omnibus bill, tabled in the legislature Thursday, comes in the wake of a provincially funded report that was essentially a scathing condemnation of the province’s school system. In response, Nova Scotia’s teachers gave their union a mandate last week for an illegal strike action to protest the sweeping reforms proposed by the report and accepted by the government. Education Minister Zach Churchill said the…

Traditional universities — including Ivy League schools — fail to deliver the kind of learning that ensures employability. That perspective inspired Ben Nelson, founder and CEO of the six-year-old Minerva Schools in San Francisco. His goal is to reinvent higher education and to provide students with high-quality learning opportunities at a fraction of the cost of an undergraduate degree at an elite school. While tuition at top-tier universities in the U.S. can run more than $40,000 a year, Minerva charges $12,950 a year, according to its website. In a recent test, its students showed superior results compared to traditional universities while also…

Pity Ray Cross. The formerly genial president of the University of Wisconsin System is trapped between an American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)–fueled state government and Board of Regents, on the one hand, and the venerable, obstinately popular “Wisconsin Idea” of accessible public higher education, on the other. What’s an ambitious university administrator to do? Cross’s conundrum has forced him into some questionable bargains, as he attempts to reconcile a devilish, well-funded assault on public institutions with the deep blue sea of support for accessible education. Most recently, Cross back-doored a deal to merge the UW Colleges, a network of two-year…

Chennai, Feb 24 (PTI) Kerala-based ESAF Small Finance Bank plans to open 100 branches by March as part of expanding presence across the country, a top official said. “With an aim to build a pan India presence, ESAF Small Finance Bank will have a total of 100 branches by March this year. So far, the bank total business crossed Rs 6,000 crore”, ESAF Small Finance Bank, Managing Director and CEO, K Paul Thomas said in a statement. At the end of this financial year, the banks total business would touch Rs 9,000 crore, he said. Currently, ESAF Small Finance Bank…

While Nintendo has often led the gaming world in innovations and experiments, it has just as often been in a last-place position. This has been a particular issue with its online services, from network connectivity to online shops. As a result, the company’s stealth update on Friday came as a bit of a surprise: Nintendo finally rolled out a full-fledged user-review system on Nintendo.com. As spotted by Polygon, starting today, anyone who has played a Nintendo Switch or Nintendo 3DS game (verified by play history tracked on a linked MyNintendo account) can post a full game review at the company’s official…

Usually, dating games offer some kind of soft introduction: you’re a high school kid, or a sexy divorced dad, or a bird-caterpillar hybrid looking for love. In browser game Fuck Everything, you are thrown, in media res, into a bar populated by a strange cast of characters, with your only instruction being the title of the game itself. You can take any one of these characters home with you (or into the back alley, if that’s what you’re into) for sex. This post contains NSFW words and imagery. In the background, a song by Eminem I never knew existed plays, in which he…