In India, there are large gaps in access to and quality of education according to gender, social class, and location. A transformation of this land scape, it is hoped will be aided by IT, given that digital resources offer a variety of educational tools and opportunities for teachers, students and communities. It is also believed that IT can help learners become more independent and effective information seekers and critical users, which is the quintessential task of truly empowering education. Myths and assumptions about learning processes have been debunked in the famed Hole-In-The-Wall experiment of the National Institute for Information Technology (NIIT). A computer, keyboard and a mouse were placed in a hole created in the wall of NIIT’s South Delhi office. The machine was left without instructions to anybody and a camera continuously tracked its use. The experiment showed that children from a nearby slum area regardless of their lack of proficiency in English and the absence of any direct instruction became highly proficient at using the graphic interphase, and in surfing the Web.

Linux Leads the Way in Kannur Kannur in Kerala achieved a unique feat by implementing a very cost-effective and economically sustainable computer education model for school children. Children of 49 Government schools in Kannur parliamentary constituency now have access to their own computer facilities running on GNU/Linux Operating system packed with the latest GNU free software. The resource for the project comes from the Constituency Development Fund of Kannur M P, Shri A P Abdullakutty and is being implemented by Keltron who provided the hardware facilities. The Software solution and support is provided by Swatantra Software Solutions & Support at Kannur who implemented the cost effective LTSP (Linux Terminal Server) solution. The computer facility includes one P4 Sever and many diskless work stations using etherboot to load Redhat 8 Operating system. The other GNU software packages include, Openoffice, multimdedia, programming tools, and many applets for educational use (physics, chemistry, maths etc.) all installed using GLUE CD.

The experiment was begun with the motive to find out what NIIT could do to help the present generation of Indian children who may have little or no access to primary education. But with time, it has broadened into an attempt to help resource-poor communities utilize their teachers more effectively by identifying those learning objectives that can be met by stimulating online learning resources alone. Joelle Alma Brink of NIIT says: "We believe the most important learning objectives attainable by this means are basic computer and Internet literacy which opens the door to lifelong distance education. " The experiment has been tried in village schools and slums and new insights on pedagogy are emerging.

Recent shifts in education strategies concern the use of IT to achieve more effective teaching in schools, to support curriculum design and enhance quality of learning. IT has the potential to aid subjects as varied as music and art or science and geography. IT has also helped in the worldwide shift towards "project" oriented learning. For countries like India, what is critical in the use of IT for achieving change in the education scenario is the challenge of crossing the digital chasm - making access to IT-supported education possible for the disadvantaged. Equally imperative is the need to harness IT to address learning processes beyond classroom situations. This will mean employing IT resources to address important agenda such as adult literacy programs and for human resource development. Education has to fulfil the goals of economic self-reliance and enable the poor to enhance livelihood skills. A significant number of IT projects in India, working in the arena of education and development, address the needs of remote, rural and disadvantaged populations.

In Uttar Pradesh, Udaan, CARE-India’s Girls Primary Education Project, imparts to girls aged between 10 years and 14 years, who are part of a ten-month primary education program, an exposure to computers. Learner-centered interactive CD-based material is developed (in collaboration with experts) to address areas of math, science and social learning aspects of the curriculum. The children using the CDs study in the residential camp called Udaan in which out-of-school older girls (12-14 year olds) complete primary education in a period of about 11 months.

Katha, a Delhi-based organization, has been working in the area of education since 1998. Katha has a learning centre for adults in the community and two Labs for the 1,200-pupil school, wherein the community, including illiterate women, train in and use IT. Activities like Bal Panchayat, the dreamers road to action; Tamasha’s World, the activist’s space; and Sheik Chilli’s Corner, maths and science for all seasons; are part of the project. Katha’s Intel Computer Club House is a space in which children from the slums undertake various projects focused on the needs of the slum community. Through a project called Govindpuri Redesign Initiative, children have developed a model for the community’s basic housing.

Deepalaya, also an NGO in Delhi, networks School-Net, Deepalaya’s IT enabled educational program, with its educational centres for slum and poor children. 50 children have their own e-mail provided by Deepalaya. A sub-domain (school.deepalaya.net) has been created to provide these e-mails. The teachers are also given ids from this sub-domain. Students use the computer lab to access their e-mails through a web interface from the local Linux server. The local server collects all mails from the remote server and sends the outgoing mails. The student and the teachers are assisted by the computer teacher.

The work of Jiva Institute, a social enterprise located in Faridabad, has been influenced by the global shift in the emphasis of education. While Jiva does not focus specifically on disadvantaged children, their approach is noteworthy since it elucidates the shift from instructive to constructive learning practices. Jiva’s ICOT - India’s Curriculum of Tomorrow, targeted at urban private schools is the result of seven years of research by Jiva. To instill the love of learning among the students, ICOT has introduced activity-oriented textbooks and interactive digital resources.

Another area of Jiva’s work is a program that strengthens the livelihood skill set of rural artisans and craftspeople from Bhuj district in Gujarat . The Learning for Earning program implemented in partnership with a local organization called Kala Raksha provides artisans training on how to use computers, create basic design on computers, use tools like Weblogs for interacting with the global Kala Raksha community, and use online shopping carts. Anirudh Pathak from Jiva says, "We are creating an integrated set of tools for Kala Raksha (an enhanced website, weblogs for communication, and online purchase/payment tools). We are turning these tools into a set of readymade tools for other non-profit organizations to make use of." The skills in using computers come as part of a wide syllabus that includes time management, accounting, budgeting, and basic supply-and-demand economics.

Exciting avenues in the use of IT for skill-building are being explored in a project in the Seelampur slum area of Delhi. Datamation Foundation, which has implemented the project, seeks to directly link the use of ICTs to the alleviation of poverty.

The project seeks to modernize the vocational skills of women in the area in bead-making, dress-making, carpentry and embroidery and lend marketing support to help them enhance their income. Datamation is in the process of developing multimedia CDs focusing on skills enhancement, women’s empowerment, and life skills. The CDs will be shown via existing cable networks since not all women can make it to the community ICT center. The project has negotiated with local cable operators to provide free telecast time.

Issues and challenges
Information literacy, aided by technology, means much more than simply teaching learners how to use computers. It implies the ability to access, use and evaluate information from different sources in order to enhance learning, solve problems and generate new knowledge. The challenge is in deploying technical skills towards the larger process of learning. Experiments across the country show that placing high-grade hardware in schools is not likely to change teaching and learning. ICTs are merely educational tools, which require careful planning and attention to human resource development such as teaching skills. Even as Dr Mitra from NIIT holds up the immense possibilities for children in the non-instructive approach of Hole in the Wall, he feels that computers will not make teachers redundant, since a teacher will still be needed for elucidating the concept.

IT investment for education also requires long-term planning, which takes account of issues of sustainability. Ritwik Patra of Deepalaya says, "The current status of the project (School-Net) is not very good as we are facing many problems. Being in the slum, the school does not enjoy stable electricity or telephone connection. We lack resources to take the project to other schools. The idea is great but it needs to be popularized through various means."

Says Anirudh Pathak from Jiva, "Foundations and companies were not ready to help, so we financed our ICOT program ourselves through the private schools, which purchased the books." In their work with artisans also, financial resources have been tough to mobilize.

"The work we are doing is pioneering, and we have to invest additional resources for research and development". But not all non-profit organizations can muster up the initial investment that IT projects demand. The education project of Katha is at crossroads. Currently the IT project is being supported by Intel, but in a year the funding support will stop and the organization is therefore exploring alternative sources for keeping the program alive. The Pratishrishti venture of Pratham has now been converted into a commercial model and been renamed Sanchar.net.

Another view that social scientists hold is that poor planning, expensive software and under-utilization make computers a costly mistake in developing country contexts. Recent research from Africa shows that the yearly cost of supplying and maintaining one African school with 10 second-hand computers, software and technical support could be as high as the cost of 2000 text books or 3.6 teachers. This brings in questions of opportunity cost. And that is—what kind of technological menus can best serve the educational needs of countries like ours?

The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) as far back as 1989, started supporting one-way video, two-way audio experiments for education, mass literacy and human resource development. The famous Gujarat-based trade union of women, SEWA has also used satellite technology. Given that its membership is spread across 11 districts covering about 530,000 women, SEWA uses Satellite Communication (SATCOM), in combination with other media such as video for mobilization, information sharing, rural networking and training of grassroots women members in their projects related to earthquake reconstruction, insurance, Panchayati Raj, forestry etc.

The Indira Gandhi National Open University has experimented with using the network that Doordarshan has for its distance education programs through a dedicated channel called Gyan Darshan. The discussion about Information technologies has by and large centered around computers only. ‘Older’ technologies such as radio are potent tools in spreading education, especially in the developing world where power and connectivity are major problems especially in rural areas. More recently, with the opening up of airwaves, IGNOU has harnessed radio technology and has set up community radio stations called Gyan Vani.

In a country like India, where education can be seen as an immediate priority, cost-effective options need to be explored. Setting up a 10 terminal system using GNU/Linux Terminal server costs only Rs 1.6 lakh. This translates into Rs 1 crore for providing computer labs for 60 schools. Juxtaposed with the fact that each Member of Parliament has 2 crore in his fund, constituencies can certainly lobby for the money to be utilized for this purpose.

Effective partnerships between government and the private sector is key to reaping the full educational benefits of IT. For example, governments might encourage the private sector to play a more socially responsible role by improving infrastructure-pricing policy, or negotiate favorable connection rates for educational and non-profit institutions. There is much that individuals (techies) from the IT sector as well as organizations who are leaders in the industry can do proactively.

A sound and effective policy is the key to making sure that IT brings solutions that connect to real problems, otherwise it is likely that initiatives will be small scale and have little impact on the system. This requires collaboration between sectors including education, finance and telecommunications and a clear role for government, for-profit and non-profit actors.

Reshmi Sarkar
The author is program coordinator at ‘IT for Change’, a non-profit organization in Bangalore. Some inputs were received from Frederick Noronha, a journalist based in Goa