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Boasting of the worlds largest school system with more than 1.2 mn schools spread over 604 districts, Indias education system story ends on a dismal note. Nothing illustrates the abysmal picture more than that almost 35 mn of its school aged children are still out of school, accounting for the largest out-of-school population in the world.

Even as the government charges a 2% education cess, the education system in India is in a complete disarray, having to deal with high dropout rates (the average school attendance was around 70% of the enrollment in 200405 while states like UP and Bihar recorded an average attendance of 57% and 42%, respectively). Lack of trained teachers; teachers missing from school duty (one-third of the teachers in MP, 25% in Bihar, and 20% in UP do not attend schools); and growing work load on trained teachers has resulted in one teacher teaching several classes at the same time.

The fact that children drop out of school early or fail to acquire basic literacy and numeracy skills partially reflects the poor quality of education, making a strong case for introducing ICT to address many of these issues. However, it cannot be a standalone scheme. It has to be one that actively solicits the partnership of states and other organizations for homogeneous proliferation of ICT in the education sector, in the country.

Early Days
Perhaps not many would be aware that Indias efforts to introduce ICT in schools goes way back to 1984, when computer literacy and studies in school (CLASS) was introduced as a pilot project. During the eighth five year plan, the project was even adopted as a centrally sponsored scheme and was extended to institutions and new government aided secondary and senior secondary schools, which were subsequently given BBC micro computers.

While not much is known about the progress of the project itself, the intention to introduce IT in the education sector was once again revived by the IT Task Force constituted in July 1998.

The task force made recommendations for introduction of IT in the education sector including schools, following which the central government introduced several schemes like Vidyarthi Computer Scheme, Shikshak Computer Scheme and School Computer Scheme to enable purchase of computers by students and teachers at affordable costs. The force also recommended introducing the Internet, beginning from the school level and going up to polytechnic colleges by 2003.

One of the most significant recommendations was introduction of SMART Schools. However, its scope was limited in concept and definition. It also emphasized on setting up of Smart Schools by Kendriya Vidyalayas and Navodaya Vidyalayas in the states.

Calling for Netizens
In an address the union minister of state for HRD (higher education), D Purandeswari, called for dovetailing efforts at the ICT level for providing quality higher education. Taking a cue from developed countries like the US, UK and Australia which have not only invested significantly in higher education but have also made the sector as one of their largest export earners. Some Asian economies like Singapore and UAE too have experienced the competitive advantage provided by a world class higher education infrastructure.

Purandeswari added that Indians should consider themselves fortunate since the demographic profile is dominated by the young population, thereby providing an ideal opportunity for maximizing the benefits of ICT.

To equip the students with IT skills, for preparing them for jobs in the growing services sector and making them self-learners in the cyber world, the central government is soon going to launch a scheme called the National Mission in Education through ICT. The scheme seeks to provide connectivity to the learners so that they can link themselves to the knowledge world in cyberspace. It would also work for creation of knowledge modules with right content to address the personalized needs of learners.

Underlining the significance of ICT in attaining the goal of a knowledge-based society and for delivering the benefits of ICT enabled learning, the national mission would also focus on achieving technological breakthrough by developing low cost and low power consuming access devicesmaking available free bandwidth for education proposes to every Indian.

National Policy
The absence of a national ICT for education policy has led to a proliferation of individualistic, expensive and unreplicable ICT initiatives across several states in India. For instance, the Madhya Pradesh government initiated a computer-enabled education program called Headstart for using the computer as a teaching/learning tool at elementary education level. Operational since November 2000, the program is now being run in 3,361 schools in forty-eight districts.

The department of school education & literacy, Ministry of Human Resource Development along with the global e-schools and communities initiative (GeSCI) has started the process for formulating the national policy on ICT in school education. To facilitate this GeSCI partnered with center for science, development and media studies (CSDMS).

However, considering that India has some 1.2 mn schools with 290 mn students attending school every day; thirty-five state boards and two central boards and a number of educational agencies are involved as stakeholders. The engagement model for policy building process therefore is based on multistakeholder partnerships including engagement with concerned communities; sharing of experiences and ideas from stakeholders; building focus groups with member partnerships on content, infrastructure, capacity building, etc. And most importantly, incorporating inputs and recommendations to create an informed policy document.

As a follow up, the HRD ministry has engaged with approximately 400 members including education experts, ICT specialists, businesses, schools, teachers, students and others to collate their views, suggestions and recommendations on a national policy on ICT in school education.

The project is focused on assisting the department of school education, MHRD, for developing an appropriate framework to support the effective deployment and integration of ICT in the education system. It will provide a platform for dialog amongst all stakeholders; evolve a strategy for leveraging economies of scale in procurement of standard content, equipment and services; and leverage resources from other partners. Also, to evolve a mechanism to ensure that knowledge, expertise and skills are shared across all states and territories; and building inhouse capacities within the MoE to conduct regular updates for ensuring a dynamic and live policy.

While the policy is still in the pipeline, some of the salient recommendations include enabling schools and colleges to use ICT in an integration modethe radio, television and computer; implementing the scheme under the BOOT model with private participation. Considering that last mile implementability is an issue in education the committee should also have someone who understands how ICT tools address last mile realities. While devising the policy for the use of ICT in school education, there should be uniformity in syllabus as well as synchronization between lectures.

Stuti Das
stutid@cybermedia.co.in

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