National Mission On Education Through ICT Approved

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs recently gave its approval for a new centrally-sponsored scheme by the name of ‘National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology (ICT)’ submitted by the Ministry of HRD.

An amount of Rs 4,612 crore is to be incurred during the 11th Five Year Plan for the National Mission on Education through ICT. There is a budget provision of Rs 502 crore during the current financial year 2008-09.

The ‘National Mission on Education through ICT’ has been envisaged as a centrally-sponsored scheme to leverage the potential of ICT, in providing high quality personalised and interactive knowledge modules over the Internet/ intranet for all the learners in higher education institutions in any time/ any where mode. This is expected to be a major intervention in enhancing the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in higher education by five percentage points during the XI Five Year Plan period and in ensuring access and equity in higher education, as recommended by the Oversight Committee and the National Knowledge Commission.

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The mission has two major components viz., (a) content generation and (b) connectivity along with provision for access devices for institutions and learners. It seeks to bridge the digital divide, i.e. the gap in the skills to use computing devices for the purpose of teaching and learning among urban and rural teachers/ learners in higher education domain and empower those, who have hitherto remained untouched by the digital revolution and have not been able to join the mainstream of the knowledge economy. It plans to focus on appropriate pedagogy for e-learning, providing facility for performing experiments through virtual laboratories, on-line testing and certification, on-line availability of teachers to guide and mentor learners, utilisation of available Education Satellite (EduSAT) and Direct-to-Home (DTH) platform, training and empowerment of teachers to effectively use the new method of teaching etc.

The mission shall work in close co-operation and collaboration with other missions/ schemes such as the National Translation Mission, Vocational Education Mission, National Knowledge Network, Scheme of ICT @ Schools etc., to avoid any duplication and attain synergy. On the one hand, the Mission would create high quality e-content for the target groups and on the other, it would simultaneously extend computer infrastructure and connectivity to over 18,000 colleges in the country including each of the departments of 419 universities/ deemed universities and institutions of national importance on a single point rental basis through the Department of Telecommunications (DOT), in a manner that would permit their seamless interaction with an integrated National Knowledge Network.

The projected benefits/results of the scheme would be enhancement of access to quality education, making available knowledge modules in cyber space and optimal utilisation of available resources through use of ICT for educating the masses, especially those living in remotely located areas and places at a disadvantage.