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…
Author: Loknath Das
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…
Bruna Abdullah may have last been seen in a special appearance in the 2016 film Mastizaade, however, the actress- model and full time head turner is certainly pretty popular on social media. In fact, though Bruna is rarely seen on the big screen, she enjoys a massive following both online and in real world. Well, one reason for her massive fan following is certainly her scintillating posts that raise temperatures.Now adding yet another one to the list, ace photographer Rahul Jhangiani shared an image of Bruna from her latest shoot. Sharing the image Rahul simply tagged the model turned actress who is seen…
SpaceX hit another orbital milestone on Wednesday: It launched a pair of experimental broadband satellites on a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The test satellites are another step forward for chief executive Elon Musk, who dreams of building a worldwide network of thousands of orbiting devices that can beam internet signals down to earth from low orbit. While much of the project is aimed at connecting developing countries to the web, many people in wealthy nations are likely to benefit too, experts say, thanks to the increased broadband competition it may prompt. SpaceX’s effort is…
On the list of places you’re likely to see people exercising, social media is perhaps second only to the gym. Tricia Burke, an assistant professor in the department of communication studies at Texas State University, wanted to know why that is — and what scrolling past all of those workout selfies and half marathon medals is doing to your psyche. Burke, along with Stephen Rains from the University of Arizona, surveyed 230 people who were active on social media about their thoughts on their own health, fitness and weight; how often workout posts appeared in their timelines; the people posting…
It’s silly o’clock on a Sunday morning and I’m still in bed when I hear my phone ping with a WhatsApp notification. I take a look and groan. A colleague is asking if I know how we teach subtraction according to our mental calculations policy. This is a regular occurrence – even at the weekend. Social media and messaging apps are a blessing and a curse for teachers. While it has broadened our horizons and inspired new ideas (thank you, Pinterest), it has also increased the intrusion of work into our personal lives. We are always contactable, and in many different ways.…