Dr. Shahid Rasool

1. Of CEC and the Media Centers: the prospects of establishing a Virtual University in India to address the issue of access and equity without undermining the quality. Dr. Shahid Rasool

2. Former President of India, Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, identifies India's human resource base as one of its greatest core competencies. In his book titled India 2020: A Vision for the New Millennium , he predicts that India will become a developed country by 2020. He advocates that Indians at all skill levels can excel in knowledge-based services, if given the right training and are placed in intellectually challenging environments. A small minority of the scientists and engineers, primarily those who graduate from the IITs, IIMs and other elite institutes in India, have become world-class knowledge workers and thought leaders. But the advantage remains with these chosen few. The crux of the challenge is to find out the way to train, what Dr Abdul Kalam calls, the "ordinary Indian engineers and scientists" to achieve a similar level of competence that would gain them the global recognition as being world class.

3. Today India has one of the biggest and very impressive higher education system in the world, with over 400 universities, deemed to be universities / institutions, over 20,000 colleges, about 12 million students and over half a million teachers. Yet our GER is under 13%, which is less then half of the world average of 23-25%. Though the quality of many Indian institutions is recognized and compared at par with many institutions of higher learning at global level, yet India has failed to create a university that can figure among the 100 top universities in the world.

4. The Indian higher education system, like other developing countries is facing enormous problems of equity in terms of access to quality education and equitable distribution of knowledge resources. The best institutions, teachers, infra-structural facilities, libraries and laboratories for historical and obvious reasons are located in cities and major towns. While thousands of educational institutions elsewhere have a very poor infrastructure and a scanty manpower that can hardly impart education not to speak of quality education. The institutions in rural and remote areas, which constitute around 80% of the country, are bereft of quality teachers and facilities.

5. Under the circumstances it is hard to imagine how India can emerge as a knowledge superpower by 2020, as envisioned by Abdul Kalam, unless we think and act differently and come out of the archaic mode of thinking, teaching and learning.

6. As the existing system caters to a small percentage of population; the challenge therefore is to make quality education available to a vast majority of people living in rural and remote areas of the country. One way, or I may say the only way, to effectively address this problem is to make judicious use of technology for teaching and training and create a quality workforce for generation of educational and technical software; that can be used within the country for overall development of the nation and also marketed globally for boasting the economy.

7. In this endeavor CEC has been silently BUT significantly making a humble contribution in creation and distribution of educational content in the form of ETV programmes for over two decades and in the form of e-content, multimedia, LORs and virtual classroom operations from the 4 or 5 years.

8. The CEC vision envisages to electronically reach out to a large number of students, teachers and general public with quality educational material, so as to address the issue of access to higher education with equity and quality. This in turn CEC believes will contribute to overall vision of making India a Knowledge superpower by 2020”.

9. While CEC / UGC vision envisages and stresses the importance of quality at par, if not better than, the world standards, as a hallmark for growth of higher education, the society in general, and the teachers in particular are indifferent to educational television and modern educational technology. With the result these programmes, of critical academic importance, remain inaccessible to a vast majority of the students who are not able to benefit from these programmes.

10. While the growth of the electronic media (of radio and TV) in terms of reach, popularity and variety has been phenomenal, there has not been a corresponding growth in their education related usage. The underutilization, due to general apathy towards educational television, restrains the educational outcome of the initiatives by UGC-CEC and the media centres. Otherwise research is supportive of enhanced educational outcomes due to exposure to the educational television programmes.

11. This is a transitory mindset that is bound to change, if we wish to stay relevant to the students in the coming years and I strongly feel we have no other choice but to make proper use of technology for education.

12. The easy affordability of IT gadgets with falling prices and the ever increasing penetration of electronic equipment, even in the rural areas of the country, have given credence to the thought that this revolution can slowly but surely make a huge difference to India educationally and economically.

13. This is substantiated by the fact that education is fast turning “borderless” and “seamless” and most of the authenticated and validated educational content on the internet is paid.

14. The excessive dependence of today’s youth on the internet and online sources is an indicator that educational content in electronic format is going to be in great demand in the years to come. The demand will be much higher when the “digital natives” –the today’s children, grow into teens. Even the “digital migrants” –including the present youth, adults and the older generations, are increasingly becoming dependent, for knowledge resources, on information and communication technology.

15. In fact, in the field of knowledge packaging the ICT has created a level playing field between the east and the west. The educational institutions, across the world, today are investing liberally in creating an ICT environment in their campuses. Computers have become the classrooms of new age. The entire process of teaching and learning has gone digital. Amidst all this it cannot be possible for any one to keep distance from modern electronic gadgets and machines or shy away from use of technology for education.

16. The convergence of media technologies and the high penetration of electronic gadgets like cell phones, computers and television sets offer enormous opportunities for higher education. For country like India, with vast geographical areas, huge rural population and limited resources for higher education, the growth and development of information and communication technologies promise a great relief.

17. So the Indian educational system is going through a very tough but interesting phase. While equitable distribution of resources for inclusive growth of higher education is a matter of concern, competition from institutions from outside has thrown up new challenge. Under the circumstances only clever and innovative integration of information and communication technologies, in an open and flexible academic structure would help the country to address the question of equity, access and quality. Given the Indian experience of using television for higher education for over 2 decades, it may not be difficult to take advantage of new technologies to address the new challenges.

18. Despite odds, the endeavor of UGC to make use of technology for education is making good strides and the initiatives taken so for hold the promise of bridging the gap between the teachers and technology. This will help in packaging authentic and reliable knowledge and disseminating the same among the students in an easy and effective way. This will also pave way in creating a vibrant knowledge society that may also become a viable source of income in the years to come when knowledge determines the economy.

19. Need of the hour is to pool our resources at all levels. This requires a paradigm shift in teaching and learning on one hand and the use of technology to effectively reach students across the country on the other.

20. In the new paradigm the focus shall be more on e-content development along side the production of educational television programmes. While the educational television programmes through television and live lectures on specific subjects are disseminated to the students through various means, the e-content on the same topics shall be made available freely using all the available means of communication.

21. The telecast again shall not be made in isolation they shall be integrated with the classroom involving teachers and the institutions. The e-content back up, with constant up gradation, shall be easily accessible on the websites with vibrant discussion platforms and blogs. This together with the involvement of teachers in distant colleges shall create a healthy learning environment in these institutions.

22. For the quality assurance, which is paramount for any serious educational endeavour, strict quality control measures are proposed to be taken to ensure the “correctness of facts, free from prejudice and bias”, with stress on latest information, rich content and attractive packaging.

23. The e-content developed shall be properly evaluated and assessed with the help of experts and certified by a national consortium, may be jointly established by CEC and NAAC before it is telecast or web-cast.

24. The new paradigm for higher education and educational technology envisages blending the technology with teaching, using a multimedia approach rather than simple teaching or broadcast of programmes. While quality educational programmes, both enrichment and syllabus based, shall be telecast using all the possible modes of transmission, there shall be enough flexibility for students to access them as and when they feel.

25. With the initial success of Virtual Classroom operations through Edusat, we can optimistically conclude that the Virtual Classrooms, together with other means of dissemination and the convergence of technology, promises free flow of educational content for the use of students irrespective of their location.

26. The successful conduct of workshops and online courses through Edusat demonstrates the capability and the capacity of virtual teaching and training. It provides excellent opportunity to share the expertise of best teachers and multiply their reach. But we need to devise mechanism to attract the best teachers for knowledge packaging. Presently their motivation level is too low. We shall link it to their promotion besides offering a good honorarium.

27. With increasing use of cell phones, 2G, 3G technology and the mobile telephony the possibilities of distributing educational content are becoming more easy and speedy. Additionally UGC Information Network (INFONET), INFLIBNET or National Knowledge Networking (NKN) efforts to connect colleges and universities across the country, can facilitate free flow of information or knowledge resources, coursewares and the reference material.

28. The paradigm shift in education, from traditional to e-learning as an integral part of the teaching and learning process, has already begun in the west and resulted in the concept of “borderless” and “seamless” education, anytime and anywhere education. The concept is fast seen turning into reality and eventually giving rise to the establishment of “Virtual Universities”.

29. The CEC and Media Centres with their humble contribution, expertise and their distribution across the country provide an excellent opportunity for India to launch a Virtual University. The establishment of Virtual University will overcome the shortcomings of the distance mode of learning and also help address the issue of equity without undermining the quality of education.

30. However before we move ahead and cut the ribbon to launch the Virtual University, it is imperative to look into issues and problems facing CEC and the Media Centres.

31. It is important to strengthen and streamline the system. The present organizational structure of CEC and the media centres and their governance needs a relook, the content generation requires a fresh approach, vision and direction, the staffing pattern that was issued in 1996 requires to be redesigned to make it uniform and in tune with the new requirements.

32. The dissemination of educational content is to be made through multiple channels, involving all the available modes of communication, including mobile telephony, with a built in interactivity and feedback.

33. A year or two before CEC, under the direction of Hon’ble Minster for HRD and Mr. Sam Pitroda, constituted a committee to address the issue of Visibility, Quality, Scalibity, and Sustainibilty of CEC endeavors. The committee under the leadership of Dr T.R. Kem and Chairmanship of Fr. George brought out a detailed action plan that will lead to establishment of a Virtual University. I feel we need to take the Action Plan Report further.

34. Additionally the CEC should increase the number of Media Centres and the best institutions in the country shall be approached to establish the media centres. This will help utilize the services of the reputed teachers for recording programmes and developing e-conent. If that is done we will be able to take best teachers to the students irrespective of their location and equalize educational opportunities for all.

35. I will conclude with what Tofler makes us believe: “that homes in modern age shall turn into ‘electronic cottages’ and people will move electronically then physically, the experts of knowledge also shall commute huge distances virtually”. Therefore CEC and Media Centres shall seriously push the agenda of establishing the first Virtual University of the country.

36. Thank you shahidemrc@gmail.com