Govt to provide Smart boards to about 1.5 lakh schools across India

Welcome Guest! You are here: Home » Education & Career

Govt to provide Smart boards to about 1.5 lakh schools across India

UGC proposed to take up 300 universities and about 10,000 colleges in the first phase covering 2 lakh classrooms

Wednesday February 20, 2019 10:45 PM, ummid.com News Network

New Delhi: Launching "Operation Digital Board (ODB)" Human Resource Development (HRD) on Wednesday said the government will provide Smart boards to some 1.5 lakh schools across India. The move is aimed at improving the quality of eduation, the ministry said.

"Operation Digital Board (ODB) is a revolutionary step which will make the learning as well as the teaching process interactive and popularize flipped learning as a pedagogical approach", Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar said while launching the program.

Javadekar said that the digital boards will be introduced all over the country in government and government aided schools from class 9th onwards as well as in higher education institutions. "The process will begin from the coming session of 2019 itself, the Minister", he said.

He said that Operation Digital Board (ODB) aims at converting a classroom into a digital classroom, and in addition to availability of e-resources at any time and at any place to students, it will also help in provisioning of personalised adaptive learning as well as Intelligent Tutoring by exploiting emerging technologies like Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence & Data Analytics.

"An expert committee has worked out optimum configuration of the Digital Classrooms under ODB", he added.

The Union Minister said that the biggest challenge facing education sector in the country is maintaining acceptable quality standards across the country.

"Although we have good number of premier institutions, which compete with the best in the world, a large number of higher education institutions and schools needs improvements in quality teaching-learning, as the students coming out of these institutions find themselves unsuitable for the requirements of the society and market", he said.

"The spread of educational technology and connectivity has given an opportunity to resolve this issue and aim at equity in educational standards", he added.

Javadekar also said that the launch of e-Pathshala, DIKSHA, NROER,NPTEL, e-pgpathshala SWAYAM and SWAYAM-Prabha DTH Channels etc. by MHRD have provided adequate content of high quality which can be taken to every classroom, and thereby facilitating blended learning and flip class learning.

"These pedagogical interventions can adequately raise the standards of teaching, irrespective of the location of the Schools and Colleges/Institutes. Such technology enabled learning can also inspire teachers across the country to raise their own standards of teaching", he said.

The University Grants Commission (UGC) has been given the duty to serve as the implementing agency for ODB in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). UGC in its Commission meeting held on 29th Jan 2019, has passed a resolution for extending digital education to every classroom in the country by 2022.

It is estimated that there would be 5 lakh classrooms in the institutions which are aided by Centre or State Governments. Out of this, based on the readiness, UGC proposed to take up 300 universities and about 10,000 colleges in the first phase covering 2 lakh classrooms.

"For the 2 lakh classrooms, the cost is estimated at Rs. 2000 crores. This can be implemented as a Central scheme, as a loan from HEFA", the minister said.

"Such Institutions with readiness to implement would be preferred. For this purpose, UGC will put in place a Portal for all the public funded HEIs to log-in and opt for the scheme giving details of this facility", he added.

For all the latest News, Opinions and Views, download ummid.com App.

Select Language To Read in Urdu, Hindi, Marathi or Arabic.