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VOL. 27, NO. 45, July25 , 2008 (Shrawan 10 2065 B.S.)
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Access to Online
From book keeping library, the new British Council has been turned into IT-based learning center
By A CORRESPONDENT
In early phase, British Council served as a library with wide range of collections of books of various areas. As the global market of knowledge moves from traditional book-keeping to Information technology, the council, too, has moved toward IT-based learning center.
According to British Council, the new learning center is aimed at teachers, as well as young professionals studying on British Council courses and those seeking access to study opportunities in the UK. It will provide constantly updated on-line materials- with more than 9,000 e-books on educational and allied subjects, and more than 700,000 articles from academic and search journals from the UK and other countries.
"This new Learning Center represents one of the most important additions to information resources in Nepal in recent years," said John Fry, the British Council Director for Nepal.
"The center, with access to over 12 million sources of high-quality information, with high speed band width for users, will help lead Nepal into a new age of information. It will accept as a key resource in areas crucial to the country's future development, such as technical and vocational education training, capacity building for English language teachers, and providing access for professionals in other areas of education."
Inaugurated by British foreign minister for Asian, African and the UN affairs Lord Malloch-Brown, the Council will provide service as a new on-line resource center.
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British Minister (left)with Rajendra Khetan: Information evolution |
"The center has access to hundreds of thousands of on-line documents from universities and other institutions not formally available free-of-charge to standard users of the internet. Because of this, it will become an invaluable resource for helping to build Nepal's professional base."
As the British Council has pre-paid access to a number of virtual learning packages, the new Learning Center will provide facilities unavailable elsewhere in Nepal. Access will be through paid membership and through participation in British Council projects in Nepal.
Equipped with 35 computers, the center will play a central role in the British Council's program in Nepal, including in English language training for teachers, school links to the UK and technical and vocational education training. It will also provide a forum for workshops, presentations and discussion groups amongst those actively working to improve education and English language capacity in the country.
It is expected the center will be used by over 10,000 people a year. But the objective is much wider: by acting as a base for spreading knowledge and best practice in education internationally, best placed to act as multipliers in wider Nepali society, benefits will impact on far wider audience. "We have already used the center to train 21 Nepali teacher trainers. These trainers have already given training to 210 primary teachers in rural schools in Baglung, Kailali and Solukhumbu. Over the next three years, thousands of rural teachers will be trained, and tens of thousands of young children will be the beneficiaries," said John Fry.
According to John Fry, by concentrating on training trainers, the center has enormous potential to spread knowledge and latest learning techniques across Nepal. Our ambition is that in the next three years, its impact should be felt across Nepal's education system and improve the learning prospects of hundreds of thousands, even though those using the facilities are unlikely to be above 30,000.
