HRD ministry?s e-initiative

The window of learning will expand with the Ministry planning a one-stop education portal, writes Chetan Chauhan.

Published on: Oct 10, 2006, 05:59:00 IST

None | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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The classroom is soon going to shrink. And the window of learning will expand with the Human Resource Development Ministry planning a one-stop education portal.

The website called Sakshat will initially have Class XI and Class XII NCERT textbooks with multimedia representation of graphics, pictures and historical characters.

To make learning easier, each chapter will have tutorials, links to reference material, lectures from top education institutions such as MIT, rapid-fire questions and answers, and a programme to test a student's learning ability.

So if a student wants to improve his algebra, he will find questions on the website with answers and explanations for each step. And if the student is still confused, he or she can opt for a teacher. "A student will e-mail his or her query to a teacher at the call centre who will reply instantly," a ministry official told HT.

Unlike schools, where tests are periodic, the website will provide instant tests and results comparable with the previous attempts. "The server will keep a record of previous data of a particular student and it will be available in form of a graph," the official said.

Information on a student's performance in the classroom will also be available on the portal as all schools will register with Sakshat and update students' record.

While teachers welcome the concept, some like Lata Vaidayanathan, principal of Modern School, Bharakhamba Road, point out that only 5 per cent homes in India have computer access. A solution to this, according to a senior ministry official, is being worked out. "We are in consultation with the IT Ministry to develop a $10 laptop for schoolchildren," the official said.

Students are both excited and anxious. "I will visit the portal if it will help me in improving my examination score," said Himani Kamboj of KV, Pitampura. Anbhav Kumar of Saint Xaviers had a different take: "Now, parents will get another tool to put pressure on children to perform."

The ministry is targeting to cover 50 crore people. "In five years it will be a portal for all education needs," the official said. Vaidayanathan, however, adds a word of caution: the website should not be projected as replacement of a classroom. The technology can only supplement the process of learning.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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