Knowledge
How the Indian government is taking education to the masses using Technology and Internet
Narendra Modi and his government have been working since coming to power diligently to take education to the masses and the biggest support has come from the growth of low cost computer and internet technology.
India has more than 220 million school going children and 14 million teachers, however the number of students moving from school to college is not proportionate. Earlier governments have taken many initiatives to use technology to take education to the masses however they have been more of populist or electoral nature.
Narendra Modi and his government have been working since coming to power diligently to take education to the masses and the biggest support has come from the growth of low cost computer and internet technology.
Here are some of the IT and ICT initiatives taken by the government and its various agencies:
National Digital Literacy Mission – NDLM
The Digital Saksharta Abhiyan (DISHA) or National Digital Literacy Mission (NDLM) Scheme aims to impart IT training to 52.5 lakh persons, including Anganwadi and ASHA workers with the specific purpose of ensuring that the non-IT literate citizens are trained to become IT literate to enable them to actively and effectively participate in the democratic and developmental process and also enhance their livelihood.
In the first phase, 10 lakh beneficiaries will be trained under the scheme. Nine lakh beneficiaries will be eligible for training fee support from the government and theremaining 100,000 beneficiaries will be trained by the industry and civil society partners.
Vidyanjali – Sharing knowledge and education
Vidyanjali is an initiative to enhance community and private sector involvement in Government run elementary schools across the country under the overall aegis of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. Through this initiative people from the Indian Diaspora, retired teachers, retired government officials including retired defence personnel, retired professionals and women who are home makers can volunteer at a school that requests for one.
Vidyanjali will also cover initiatives under the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Public Private Partnership (PPP), with Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) Companies, private corporate and others.
Bharatavani – Learning about India’s culture and heritage through Languages
Bharatavani’sobjective is to deliver knowledge in and about all the languages in India using multimedia (i.e., text, audio, video, images) formats through a portal (website). The portal is designed to be all inclusive, interactive, dynamic and will be moderated to ensure quality content.
The Bharatavani Portal would publish content under the following main categories:
- PaaThyapustaka Kosha: Textbooks
- Jnana Kosha : Knowledge base (Digitisation underway)
- Shabda Kosha: Dictionaries
- Bhasha Kosha : Language learning
- SuchanaaPraudyogikii Kosha : IT tools (Linked to TDIL)
- Bahumaadhyama Kosha: Multimedia
Web Based School GIS – bettering SSA and RMSA delivery and resource utilization
Web Based School GIS application is an initiative of the Department of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of HRD for seamless visualization of school locations across the country. This is powered by NICMAPS.
Geographic location of schools collected by the various School Education Departments of the states has been collated and mapped on GIS Platform established by National Informatics Centre. Further, these school locations have been interlinked with the school report cards based on U-DISE database, developed and hosted by National University of Educational Planning and Administration.
This web service application comprises of administrative boundaries up to village level and location information up to habitation level along with basic GIS functionalities and measurement tools which will help to improve the quality of planning and better utilization of resources available under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) and Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA)
Shala Darpan – Monitoring and tracking students’ progress in schools
Under Shala Darpan, launched by Kendriya Vidyalaya, the parents were allowed to keep a watch on their child’s presence at the respective classrooms. They could also check their performance in the class and the teachings given to them.
The HRD ministry initiative will be in the lines of Shala Darpan, which will help the ministry to keep track of the enrolment of students to various schools. They will also keep track of their progress in the school and report of the students when they move to another class.
ePathshala – NCERT’s push for digital books and note taking
The Digital India campaign has promoted extensive use of ICTs in the teaching learning process based upon the fact that mobile and technology can reach where sometimes even humans can’t.
ePathshala is a joint initiative of Ministry of HRD, Govt. of India and National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) and will be disseminating all educational e-resources including textbooks, audio, video, periodicals, and a variety of other print and non-print materials.
Students, Teachers, Educators and Parents can access eBooks through multiple technology platform that is mobile phones, tablets and from the web through laptops and desktops. Features of these books allow users to pinch, select, zoom, bookmark, highlight, navigate, share and take notes digitally.
CBSE’s Saransh portal and mobile app – connecting schools and parents
Saransh is a tool for comprehensive self-review and analysis for CBSE affiliated schools and parents. It enables them to analyze students' performance in order to take remedial measures. Saransh brings schools, teachers and parents closer, so that they can monitor the progress of students and help them improve their performance.
SWAYAM Prabha – Education comes Direct-To-Home
The Government of India has recently approved the SWAYAM Prabha project which will provide 32 Direct to Home (DTH) channels serving educational content to teachers, students and other citizens. The channels are expected to launch in September this year.
The project will launch in English and the Ministry of Human Resource Development plans to add programs in regional languages as well. The channels will cover different subjects for 4 hours every day, with lessons repeated 6 times a day. These curriculum based programs will be designed like courses and will include classes in arts, science, commerce, performing arts, social sciences, humanities subjects, engineering, technology, law, medicine and agriculture.
National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) will be providing content for at least 3 channels under this project.
The government is using all technological and human resources it has to take school education to the next level and inculcate the importance of learning in citizens of all age groups and community background. The biggest show stopper or enabler will be the measurement and monitoring the efficacy of these initiatives and this must be the next big action on the government’s to-do list for education.
A detailed list of government websites for school, college and vocation studies can be found at the GOI website director located at
http://www.goidirectory.nic.in/sectors_categories.php?ct=ST010.
Important links:
https://itunes.apple.com/in/app/epathshala/id1056118674?mt=8
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=in.gov.epathshala&hl=en
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.converge.saransh&hl=en
Image Courtesy:Govt of India websites named and referenced in this article