EDUCATION

Education holds the key to economic growth and social transformation. Though the major indicators of socio-economic development viz., the growth rate of the economy, birth rate, death rate, infant mortality rate (IMR) and literacy rate, are all interconnected, the literacy rate has been the major determinant of the rise or fall in the other indicators. There is enough evidence in India to show that a high literacy rate, especially in the case of women, correlates with low birth rate, low IMR and increase in the rate of life expectancy. The recognition of this fact has created awareness on the need to focus upon literacy and elementary education programmes, not simply as a matter of social justice but more to foster economic growth, social well-being and social stability.

The National Policy on Education formulated in 1986 and modified in 1992 aims to play a positive and interventionist role in correcting social and regional imbalances, empowering women and in securing rightful place for the disadvantaged and the minorities. At the national level there is the commitment under the National Common Minimum Programme (NCMP) for increasing public expenditure on education to 6 per cent of GDP and for universalising elementary education. There is also an obligation, under the Constitution's 86th Amendment, for making available free and compulsory education to all children in the age group of 6-14 years.

India's Position in Education Sector

• India has the third largest higher education system in the world
  o 431 Universities & 20,677 colleges
  o 7000 technical education institutions
  o 11.6 million students' enrolled and 0.55 million teachers were appointed
  o 1500 research institutions
  
  
• Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) of 11% with government intending to take it to 15 % by 2012.
  
  
• Public spending on Education at 3.6% of GDP with 0.7% on higher education is in line with BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) countries.
  
  
• India's education and training sector offers private institutions an estimated US$ 40 bn market, with a potential 16% five-year Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR).
  
  
• After K-12 (sum of primary and secondary education), private professional colleges form the single biggest category in Indian education constituting about US$ 7 bn market out of which engineering takes the major share of US $ 5.85 bn (83%).
  
  
• Private Sector Institutions constitute:
  o 84% of management institutes
  o 64% of engineering institutes
  o 76% of medical colleges
  
  
• Total annual output of graduates from Indian Universities &HEIs:
  o Engineering graduates: 400,000
  o PhDs in engineering: 800
  o Medical graduates: 22,000
  o PhDs in Science: 5000

Structure of Education

Education system in India can be broadly classified into 3 categories:

• Elementary education
  
• Secondary education
  
• Higher education

Elementary Education

In an effort to improve the performance of the school system and provide education to all children in the 6-14 age group by 2010,the government has implemented a number of programmes. These include:

Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA)

Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan is an effort to universalise elementary education by community-ownership of the school system. It is a response to the demand for quality basic education all over the country. The SSA programme is also an attempt to provide an opportunity for improving human capabilities to all children, through provision of community-owned quality education in a mission mode.

Objectives of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan

• All children complete five years of primary schooling by 2007
• All children complete eight years of elementary schooling by 2010
• Focus on elementary education of satisfactory quality with emphasis on education for life
• Bridge all gender and social category gaps at primary stage by 2007 and at elementary education level by 2010
• Universal retention by 2010

Mid-Day Meal (MDM) Scheme

Mid-Day Meal (MDM) scheme is a centrally sponsored programme to support universalisation of primary education and to improve the nutritional status of children at primary stage. The scheme is being implemented by all states and union territories. Being the largest school feeding programme in the world, MDM scheme covers nearly 9.70 crore children studying at the primary stage of education in classes I-V in 9.50 lakh Government (including local body) and Government aided schools, and the Centres run under Education Guarantee Scheme (EGS) and Alternative & Innovative Education (AIE). The programme was extended, with effect from 1.10.2007, to children in the upper primary stage of education (classes VI-VIII) in 3,479 Educationally Backward Blocks (EBBs). Approximately 1.7 crore additional children in classes VI-VIII in EBBs are expected to be included.

The MDM programme has helped in promoting school participation, preventing class room hunger, instilling educational values and fostering social and gender equality.The scheme, in its first year of implementation, has led to positive outcomes such as, increase in enrollment, more significantly of girls, surge in daily attendance, particular of girls and children from poorer sections, improvement in retention, learning ability and achievement,· Curbing of teacher absenteeism, a rallying point for parents' involvement in governance of schools.

In a new path-breaking initiatives, it has been decided to empower mothers of children covered under the MDM scheme to supervise the preparation and serving of the meal. Mothers are being encouraged to come forward and take turn to supervise the feeding of the children, thus ensuring regularly and quality of the meal. This initiative is aimed at giving mothers a voice and a role and greater ownership of the programme. States have been requested to launch a concerted campaign for mass mobilization of mothers.

National Programme for Education of Girls at Elementary Education (NPEGEL)

The programme is aimed at enhancing girls’ education by providing additional support for development of a “model girl child friendly school” in every cluster with more intense community mobilization and supervision of girls enrolment in schools. Under NPEGEL, 35,252 model schools have been opened in addition to supporting 25,537. Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) centres. Besides, 24,387 additional classrooms have been constructed, and 1.85 lakh teachers have been given training on gender sensitization. Remedial teaching has also been provided to 9.67 lakh girls, apart from holding bridge courses covering 1.53 lakh girls and additional incentives like uniforms, etc. to about 71.46 lakh girls.

Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya (KGBV) Scheme

The Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya (KGBV) scheme was launched in July 2004 for setting up residential schools at upper primary level for girls belonging predominantly to the SC, ST, OBC and minority communities.The Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya scheme ran as separate scheme for two years but was merged with Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan w.e.f. April 1, 2007.

Secondary Education

Secondary education, which has a 2+2 structure and starts with classes IX-X leading to higher secondary classes XI-XII, prepares young persons in the age group 14-18 for entry into the world of higher education and work.

Central Government supports autonomous organizations like National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan (KVS) and Navodaya Vidyalaya Sangathan (NVS) and Central Tibetan School Administration (CTSA), the first one for providing research and policy support to the Central and State Governments, CBSE for affiliating Secondary Schools and the remaining three for their own school systems. There are 919 functional Kendriya Vidyalayas and 539 Navodaya Vidyalayas which are pace setting schools in the country.

Recent Initiatives in Secondary Education

• As against an allocation of Rs.4,325 crore during the 10th Plan the allocation for the 11th Plan for secondary education has been enhanced to Rs.53550 crore.
  
  
• A National Merit-cum-Means Scholarships Scheme for award 1 lakh scholarships to Class 9 students every years @ Rs.6000 per year has been launched in 2008.
  
  
• A new centrally sponsored scheme to establish one high quality model school in each block of the country to serve as schools of excellence has been launched from 2008.
  
  
• A “National Scheme of Incentive to Girls for Secondary Education”, to provide a one time incentive mainly for SC & ST girls has been launched in 2008.
  
  
• A new centrally sponsored scheme to set up girls’ hostels in about 3,500 educationally backward blocks has been launched in 2008-09. Under this scheme priority will be given to girls belonging to SC/ST/OBC/ Minority communities.
  
  
• Setting up of 20 Navodaya Vidyalayas in districts having a large concentration of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes has been sanctioned. 10 Schools will be set up in districts having a large concentration of Scheduled Castes and the remaining 10 in districts having large concentration of Scheduled Tribes.
  
  
• The scheme of Integrated Education for Disabled Children has been restructured to focus on children with disability at secondary stage.
  
  
• 9 new Kendriya Vidyalayas have been opened in 2008-09.
  
  
• 1 new Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas have been sanctioned, and 6 new Vidyalayas made functional in 2008-09.

University and Higher Education

The main thrust of activities in the higher education sector relates to the following areas:

• Growth of Higher Education System.
• General Development of Universities and Colleges.
• Enhancing Access and Equity.
• Promotion of Quality and Excellence.
• Programmes for Differently-Abled Persons.
• Strengthening of Research.

To achieve the set targets, the following institutions have been created to promote, facilitate and regulate University and Higher education :

University Grants Commission (UGC)- The University Grants Commission (UGC) came into existence in 1953, with the objective of coordinating activities for promotion of higher education in the country. UGC provides accreditation of universities and colleges, promotion of universities of excellence, promotion of centres of area studies, establishment of special cells for SC/ ST, assistance for strengthening infrastructure in science and technology, setting up of inter-university centres, participation in seminars and conferences held within the country and outside, and establishment of computer centres in universities. The UGC has also allocated maintenance and development grants to 17 Central Universities.

Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU)- The Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), established by an Act of Parliament in 1985, promotes Open University and Distance Education System in the country. It widened the access of higher education by providing opportunities to larger segments of the population. IGNOU has adopted integrated multimedia instructions strategy.

Significant contributions have also been made by research councils like Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR), Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR), Indian Institute of Advanced Studies (IIAS), Indian Council of Philosophical Research (ICPR) and National Council of Rural Institutes (NCRI). These research councils, which function outside the university system, promote research and creativity in important areas like social science, history, philosophy and interdisciplinary areas.

Bilateral educational relations have been promoted by institutes like the United States Educational Foundation in India (USEFI), Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute (SICI) and American Institute of Indian Studies by offering fellowships for research on different subjects.

There has been an impressive growth in the area of higher education with an increase in annual student enrolment from 7.26 million in 1997-98 to 10.48 million in 2004-05. Enrolment of women students rose from 2.45 million in 1997-98 to 4.04 million in 2004-05, constituting 40.4 per cent of the total enrolment.

Recent Initiatives in Higher Education

1. Six new Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), one each in Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Orissa, Gujarat and Punjab have been set up during XI Plan.
   
   
2. One new Indian Institute of Management (IIM) namely Rajiv Gandhi Indian Institute of Management (RGIIM) has been set up at Shillong in Meghalaya.
   
   
3. Five new Indian Institutes of Science Education & Research (IISERs) have been set up at Kolkata, Pune, Mohali, Bhopal and Thiruvananthapuram during XI Plan. While three IISERs at Kolkata, Pune and Mohali had already started functioning from their temporary premises earlier, two at Bhopal and Thiruvananthapuram have started their Sessions.
   
   
4. Two new Schools of Planning & Architecture (SPAs) have been set up at Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh and Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh.
   
   
5. Admission in National Institutes of Technology (NITs) is based on AIEEE conducted by CBSE by allocating 50% of the seats to the States where the NITs are located and the remaining 50% used to be earmarked for other States / UTs till 2007. From 2008 onwards, these remaining 50% of the seats are now to be filled up on All India merit basis, as a major policy shift.
   
   
6. One new Central University, namely Indira Gandhi National Tribal University has been established at Amarkantak in Madhya Pradesh under an Act of Parliament.
   
   (a) The Indira Gandhi National Tribal University at Amarkantak is a teaching and affiliating university for facilitating and promoting avenues of higher education and research facilities for the tribal population of the country. The university has started its academic programme in a modest way, with the help of guest faculty and contractual appointees. Admissions to B.A. (Hon.), B. Com (Hon.) and BBA courses have since taken place for the academic session 2008-09.
   
   
7. The Pay Review Committee constituted for teachers in higher education submitted its report which was referred to an Empowered Committee constituted on 10th October, 2008. The Central Government has accepted the recommendations of the Empowered Committee. Consequently, pay and service conditions in Colleges and Universities have been substantially improved in order to attract and retain talented persons in the teaching career.
   
   
8. Assistance for the establishment of 374 colleges in districts having gross enrolment ratio in higher education lower than the national average. 374 such districts have been identified in the country and UGC has been asked to facilitate the establishment of these colleges as the constituent units through the State Universities and action is being taken to establish them for which UGC will release a grant of Rs.2.67 crores for each of the degree colleges.
   
   
9. A new Scheme has been started to cover top 2% of the student population of class XII (equally divided between boys and girls on the basis of class XII results) by providing them with scholarship of Rs.1000/- per month for 10 months in a year for under-graduate level studies and Rs.2000/- per month for 10 months in a year for post-graduate level studies.
   
   
10. Decision taken to liberalise research visa procedure for foreign students.
    
    
11. Immediately after the vacation of stay by the Hon’ble Supreme Court in April 2008, directions were given for implementation of reservation in all Central Educational Institutions. Special drive was also made to ensure that IITs/IIMs fill up the entire reserved category seats by organising preparatory classes as well as remedial coaching. Rs.2522 crore has also been provided during 2008-09 to expand the capacity of the Central Educational Institutions by 54% so that there is no reduction in the availability of the general category seats due to the implementation of 27% OBC reservations.
    
    
12. Approval for establishment of Central Institute of Classical Tamil has been accorded by the Government and it has started functioning during the current year.
    
    
13. National Translation Mission Programme has been launched by the Government for translation of existing knowledge books in English into various languages in the 8th Scheduled of the Constitution.
    
    
14. AICTE has permitted evening shifts in the engineering colleges and polytechnics.
    

Adult Education

A socially conscious and literate society has a vital role to play in a democracy. Eradication of illiteracy has been one of the major national concerns of the Government of India since Independence. The need for a literate population was recognised as a crucial input for nation building. Due to a number of significant programmes taken up since Independence to eradicate illiteracy among adults, for the first time the absolute number of literates outnumbered the number of illiterates in the Census 2001.

To attain a goal of sustainable growth in education, to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the programmes carried out by the government, and to accord a new sense of urgency, seriousness and emphasis with fixed goals, clear time frame and age specific target groups, National Literacy Mission (NLM) was set up in May 1988.

The objective of the National Literacy Mission (NLM) is to impart functional literacy to non-literates in the 15-35 age group. The goal of the mission is to achieve sustainable threshold literacy rate of 75 per cent by 2007. The main programmes of the Mission include Total Literacy Campaign to provide basic literacy to the non-literates, followed by Post-Literacy Programme for the reinforcement of the literacy skills to the neo-literates and the Continuing Education Programme to provide facilities for life-long education to the community at large. At present, 101 districts are implementing Total Literacy Campaigns, 171 districts Post-Literacy Programmes and 325 districts Continuing Education Programmes.

In addition, 194 Jan Shikshan Sansthans have been set up to provide vocational training to the neo-literates and backward sections of the society and 26 State Resource Centres have been established for providing academic and technical resource support for the literacy programmes.

Recent Initiatives in Adult Education

1. A series of consultations and review meetings have been held over the course of the last year in order to redesign the strategy of the National Literacy Mission for basic literacy and continuing education, including inter alia:

i. Planning Commission held a Consultative Meeting on 12th June 2008 to discuss the 11th Plan strategies on Adult Education.

ii. The National Consultation organized in NUEPA on 26th June 2008 to recommended that adult education be viewed as a continuum from basic literacy to continuing education. It recommended merger of the different stages into a single programme, with concurrent and parallel planning and provisioning for basic literacy and continuing education, so that learners could transit from basic literacy to self-reliant learning levels without interruption. It also made significant recommendation on the volunteer mode, since literacy movements, the world over, have been people’s movements, driven by altruism, selflessness and voluntarism.

iii. The series of state-wise review meetings with Education Secretaries conducted during June-July this year indicated that concern for the literacy programme stills exists. There is however, need for significant systemic reform in order to revive the literacy programmes.

iv.The inter-departmental meetings with Ministries/Departments of Panchayati Raj, Rural Development, Health and Family Welfare, Women and Child Development, and other related Ministries revealed the enormous scope for linking literacy with PRIs, SHGs and such agencies to augment the resources for literacy.

2. In pursuance of the decision taken in the meeting of the General Body of the National Literacy Mission (NLM ) Authority, a Sub-Committee was constituted in April 2008 to suggest the ways and means to implement the NLM’s strategy for the 11th Plan. The Sub committee made the following recommendations:

i. Caution against quick fix solutions to achieving high literacy rate that would in the long run not be sustainable.

ii. NLM should retain a gender focus in its literacy programmes, with greater attention to women from SC, ST and minority groups.

iii. Payment of honorarium to volunteers would be financially unviable. The literacy movement has been, and should continue to be, driven by altruism and selflessness. NLM should ensure that it designs newer ways of sustaining volunteer interest and motivation, and enable them to understand the larger goal of social change for the country.

iv. In respect of very remote and far-flung villages, where no educated person is available for transacting teaching learning in volunteer mode, NLM may consider payment of honorarium to a person to reside in the village for a period of approximately two years to provide learning opportunities to people in the village.

v. In addition to volunteer based approach to basic literacy, NLM should take up residential literacy courses of different durations, mainly at the block/cluster level.

vi. NLM must ensure that mobilisation and environment-building activities are not viewed as one-time activities, but permeate the entire programme in all its aspects, including survey, training, teaching learning process and assessment.

vii. NLM should set up a Committee to look into curricular equivalence for basic literacy, continuing education, as also equivalency programmes.

viii. NLM should set up institutionalized, permanent centres, which would take responsibility for basic literacy and organize a range of continuing education activities.

ix. Convergence with programmatic interventions under NREGA, SGSY, TSC, SHGs, NHRM and RTI is the key to the success of the literacy programme.

x. Full time staff should be available at state, district, block and centre level for undertaking the multifarious tasks of basic literacy, continuing education and equivalency in a time bound manner

3.Inputs from the various consultations as also the recommendations of the Sub Committee have contributed to redesigning the strategy for adult education, which is expected to be considered by the Expenditure Finance Committee (EFC) shortly and thereafter by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA).

4.In preparation of approvals of the revised strategy for basic literacy and continuing education the Executive Committee of the National Literacy Mission constituted the following Sub-Missions: (i) Mobilisation, environment building and convergence, (ii) Curricular Equivalence, (iii) Training and Pedagogy, (iv) Media and Communication, (v) Monitoring, Evaluation and Assessment.

Technical Education

The Technical Education system in the country covers courses and programmes in engineering, technology, management, architecture, town planning, pharmacy, applied arts and crafts. The Ministry of Human Resource Development caters to programmes at undergraduate, postgraduate and research levels. The technical education at the Central level comprises the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), which is the statutory body for proper planning and coordinated development of the technical education system; seven Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) which are Institutions of National Importance; six Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), five deemed to-be-universities. Also there are 4 technical institutes in the Central sector; 4 National Institute of Technical Teachers Training and Research (NITTTRs); and 4 Boards of Apprenticeship Training (BOATs).

Other schemes at the Central level include Programme for Apprenticeship Training (Scholarships and Stipends); Assistance to universities for Technical Education; Community Polytechnics; World Bank Project for Improvement of Polytechnic Education, Technical Education Quality Improvement Programme of Government of India (TEQIP), Polytechnic for disabled Persons; Payment for Professional and Special Services; Direct Central Assistance to the Central Institutions, namely, Research and Development, Modernisation and Removal of Obsolescence of Engineering Laboratories and Workshops and Thrust Areas of Technical Education; Human Resource Development in Information Technology; Support to distance and web-based education; National Programme for Earthquake Engineering Education (NPEEE), Indian National Digital Library for Science and Technology (INDEST) Consortium; Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok; Expenditure on Foreign Delegations and Foreign Experts; Technology Development Missions. There also exists one public sector undertaking, namely, Educational Consultants India Ltd. (Ed.CIL) under the Technical Education system of the Ministry.

To leverage new information and communication technologies (ICTs), to enhance learning effectiveness and expand access to high quality education,a National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL) is being implemented.

Growth in Literacy

Literacy in India has made remarkable strides since Independence. This has been further confirmed by the recently declared provisional results of the literacy rates of census 2001. The literacy rate has increased from 18.33% in 1951 to 65.38% in 2001. This is despite the fact that during the major part of the last five decades there has been exponential growth of the population at nearly 2% per annum. Some of the important highlights of literacy rates of census 2001 are given below:

• The literacy rate in the country has increased to 65.38%, which reflects an overall increase of 13.17%, the fastest decadal growth ever. This is the highest rate since independence.
• The male literacy rate has increased to 75.85%, which shows an increase of 11.72%. On the other hand, the female literacy of 54.16% has increased at a much faster rate of 14.87%.
• The male-female literacy gap has reduced from 24.84% in 1991 to 21.70% in 2001.
• All States and Union Territories without exception have shown increase in literacy rates during 1991-2001.
• In all the States and Union Territories the male literacy is now over 60%.
• For the first time since independence there has been a decline in the absolute number of illiterates during the decade. In the previous decades, there has been a continuous increase in the number of illiterates, despite the increase in the literacy rates, but now for the first time the total number of illiterates has come down by 31.96 million.
• The number of literate persons has increased to 562.01 million in 2001 thus adding an additional 203.61 million literates in the country.

Investment Potential

• Higher and vocational education is a priority for the government of India.
  
• Market for Higher Education in India is projected to grow almost three times in the next 10 years to US$ 115 billion.
• An attractive market for the higher education sector as over 50% of the population falls in the age group of 15-64 years, with a median age between 20-30 years.
• Opportunities for Foreign Higher Education Institutions

Opportunities in Education Sector

• Internet;
  
• Student exchange programs;
  
• Campus development;
  
• Twinning arrangements;
  
• R&D collaboration; and
  
• Faculty exchange programs
  

Policy Framework

The Right Of Children To Free and Compulsory Education Bill 2008:

The Constitutional (Eighty Sixth) Amendment Act, 2002 notified on 13th December 2002, inserted Article 21-A in the Constitution, which provides that ‘the State shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age of six to fourteen years in such manner as the State may, by law, determine’. Section 1(2) of the Constitutional (Eighty Sixth) Amendment Act, 2002 provides that ‘it shall come into force on such date as the Central Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette appoint’.

‘The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Bill, 2008’ was introduced in the Rajya Sabha on 15.12.2008. The Notification of the Constitution (86th Amendment) Act, 2002 would be issued in the official Gazette after "The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Bill, 2008" is enacted by the Parliament.

The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Bill, 2008 provides for:

(i) The right of children to free and compulsory education till completion of elementary education in a neighbourhood school. It clarifies that ‘compulsory education’ means obligation of the appropriate government to provide free elementary education and ensure compulsory admission, attendance and completion of elementary education to every child in the six to fourteen age group. It makes provisions for a non-admitted child to be admitted to an age appropriate class.

(ii) It specifies the duties and responsibilities of appropriate Governments, local authority and parents in providing free and compulsory education, and sharing of financial and other responsibilities between the Central and State Governments

(iii) It lays down the norms and standards relating inter alia to Pupil Teacher Ratios (PTRs), buildings and infrastructure, school working days, teacher working hours.

(iv) It provides for rational deployment of teachers by ensuring that the specified pupil teacher ratio is maintained for each school, rather than just as an average for the State or District or Block, thus ensuring that there is no urban-rural imbalance in teacher postings. It also provides for prohibition of deployment of teachers for non-educational work, other than decennial census, elections to local authority, state legislatures and parliament, and disaster relief.

(v) It provides for appointment of appropriately trained teachers, i.e. teachers with the requisite entry and academic qualifications;

(vi) It prohibits (i) physical punishment and mental harassment, (ii) screening procedures for admission of children, (iii) capitation fees, (iv) private tuition by teachers, (v) running of schools without recognition,

(vii) It provides for the following penalties:

a. For charging capitation fee = fine upto 10 times the capitation fee charged,

b. For resorting to screening during admission = Rs 25,000 for first contravention; Rs 50,000 for each subsequent contravention,

c. For running a school without recognition = fine upto Rs one lakh, and in case of continuing contravention Rs 10,000 for each day during which the contravention continues

(viii) It provides for development of curriculum in consonance with the values enshrined in the Constitution, and which would ensure the all-round development of the child, building on the child’s knowledge, potentiality and talent and making the child free of fear, trauma and anxiety through a system of child friendly and child centred learning.

(ix) It provides for protection and monitoring of the child’s right to free and compulsory education and redressal of grievances by the National and State Commissions for Protection of Child Rights, which shall have the powers of a civil court.

The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Bill, 2008 would lead to significant reform in the Elementary Education System and would ensure Universalisation of Elementary Education of satisfactory and equitable quality.

National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology

Objective

The proposed Mission broadly has the objective of ensuring connectivity of the learners to the ‘World of Knowledge’ in cyberspace and to make them ‘Netizens’ in order to enhance their self-learning skills and develop their capabilities for on-line problem solving and to work for : creation of knowledge modules with right contents to address to the personalized needs of learners; certification of competencies of the learners, acquired through formal or non-formal means; and to develop and maintain the database having profile of human resources.

Vision

The Mission aims for:

(a) building connectivity and knowledge network among and within institutions of higher learning in the country with a view to achieving critical mass of researchers in any given field;

(b) spreading digital literacy for teacher empowerment;

(c) development of knowledge modules having the right content to take care of the aspirations of academic community and to address the personalized needs of the learners;

(d) standardization and quality assurance of e-contents to make them world class;

(e) research in the field of pedagogy for development of efficient learning modules for disparate groups of learners;

(f) making available e-knowledge contents, free of cost to Indians;

(g) experimentation and field trial in the area of performance optimization of low cost access devices for use of ICT in education;

(h) providing support for the creation of a Virtual Technological University;

(i) identification and nurturing of talents;

(j) certification of competencies of the human resources acquired either through formal or non-formal means and the evolution of a legal framework for it; and

(k) developing and maintaining the database with the profiles of our human resources.

Major Components of the mission

The Mission has the following components :

(1) Connecting Academic Community to the World of Knowledge in Cyberspace

In order to meet the objectives of the Mission, it is imperative to provide connectivity to the teaching and learning community to the World of Knowledge in cyberspace through information super highway. Therefore, the Mission shall work for providing all the institutions of higher learning, in the country, with access devices and connectivity through high speed broadband and VPN etc. It is estimated that approximately 20,000 institutions of higher learning shall reap this benefit. It shall be the endeavour of the Mission to ensure that the access devices are available with maximum number of learners in the country to enable them to become the ‘Netizens’. To achieve this objective it shall support development of low cost and low power consuming devices through their field trials. The Mission, shall provide platform for exchange of e-content, development of which will be fully funded by Central Government. The Central Government would also bear 75% of the cost of the connectivity having bandwidth up to 10-25 Mbps per college or per department of a University if remaining cost is borne by State Government or college/institution concerned.

(2) Digital Empowerment of the Academic Community

The Mission believes that the academic community needs to be computer friendly and comfortable with the use of computing and access devices in order to take maximum benefit of ICT tools in teaching and learning process. Therefore, it has a plan to educate and train the academic community in using the computing devices, browse the internet and make use of ICT tools on priority. It proposes to seek the cooperation of all organizations including the software and computer hardware companies in this effort.

(3) Content Generation and its Management

One of the major activities of the Mission shall be to promote the generation of e-contents in all disciplines and subjects to facilitate the understanding of the course work and hard topics contained therein by the students of various levels.

The Mission shall encourage the teaching faculty to make use of their knowledge to generate contents in their respective subjects by using the ICT tools.

Mission realizes that a large quantity of e-contents in all disciplines is already available in different forms like Compact Disks (CDs) and over the internet. Mission proposes to undertake the validation of the available material in free domain, for the purpose of quality assurance, classification and thereafter putting appropriate advisories for the benefit of learners through attached metadata.

(4) National Programme of Technology Enhanced Learning

The National Programme of Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL) was started by the Indian Institutes of Technology and the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. A good number of quality material on various courses has been created by these premier institutions of the country. e-Contents are being continuously generated by the reputed faculty members of the premier institutions under NPTEL programme. This programme has been subsumed with the Mission to give it a new dimension. Mission hopes that the e-contents generated under this programme shall be of great use for the engineering students enrolled in the engineering colleges across the country. It shall also address, to some extent, the challenge of availability of faculty to teach specialized high profile courses in the engineering colleges.

(5) Research for development of new ICT Tools

Given consideration to the fact of rapid advancement in the arena of ICT, the Mission has an inbuilt component for promotion of research for development of new tools that may be used for facilitating the teaching and learning processes. The Mission proposes to support the development of technology for creation of virtual laboratories so that the students enrolled in such colleges where appropriate facility for practical training is not available, can have the benefit through virtual laboratories. Once this technology is fully developed, it may also be possible to impart technical education through distance mode. Mission shall also support research for creation of virtual technological universities. Support shall also be extended to the projects for development of hepatic devices and all other proposals of merit for the development of different ICT tools to make teaching and learning easy, cost effective and to provide equal opportunity of learning to all irrespective of geographical and economical constraints.

(6) Human Resources Database

The mission proposes to create a database of all human resources in the country with their skills and competencies in order to make best use of their skills for enhancing the productivity.

(7) Certification of Skills

The nation has a large pool of skilled human resources, who have developed the skills through various non-formal means. The talent of such human resources is not fully utilized for increasing the productivity of the nation for the want of appropriate certification. To address this issue, the Mission proposes to develop an ICT based system to assess and certify the skills of the human resources in due course of time.

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) Policy

FDI up to 100%, on the automatic route in the education sector is permissible, subject to the sectoral rules/regulations as may be applicable.

Useful Web links

Ministry of Education