BANGALORE: Over a 100 students are going to spend their summer vacation learning, interacting and having fun. A few selected students are going to be a part of the Duke University’s (USA), Talent Identification Programme—India. The programme will be conducted in the upcoming summer vacations.
Twenty four students from 12 different schools are among the first 100 students. These students belong to Greenwood High International School, Innisfree House School, Inventure Academy, Sindhi High School, Sri Kumaran Children’s Home, Sishu Griha Montessori and High School among few others.
The students were among the top performing students in the national bench marking test ASSET (Assessment of Scholastic Skills through Educational Testing) conducted by Educational Initiatives (EI). ASSET is the qualifying test in India for the Duke TIP Programme.In 2011, 1300 students of seven standard were invited to write the above level test. These 1300 students are the top students who fall in the top 5 pecentile of students who took ASSET nationally. These 100 have been selected on the basis of their outstanding performance in the above level test that was conducted in the month of November 2011.
Pankhuri Nigam, the programme coordinator from EI said, “The Duke TIP Summer Study Programme is a three-week long residential programme with an intensive course schedule. The students choose from the various courses offered to them. These courses are conducted by faculty of Duke University. Duke TIP Summer Study Programme is being conducted in the Infosys Campus, Mysore”. Some of the courses that the students under go here are Cryptography, Codebreaking and the Mathematics of Spying; Entrepreneurial Leadership; Design Challenges—physics and engineering; and Forensic Science.
Sridhar Rajagopalan, the founder and managing director of EI said, “In our regular education system there isn’t much that we can offer to the gifted children. They need greater challenges and they ought to be given opportunity to explore their advanced skill sets.