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Kapil Sibal logs in to reboot education system

THE growth of the Indian economy and the compulsion to sustain it is propelling the Indian government to accelerate the process of developing all the branches of Indian education system. It is of utmost importance that the present education system is modernised in order to come on a par with the best in the world. This issue was discussed at length at a seminar on ‘ Education 2.0: Rebooting the Indian Education System’ seminar in Delhi.

Union Human Resource Development minister Kapil Sibal was the keynote speaker at the seminar. Speaking on the occasion, Sibal said: “ Today, 220 million children are able to go to school and out of them only 26 million reach college, which is just 12 per cent. Our aim in the nearest future is to bring this percentage to 30 per cent. Today is the time that can be a good starting point for India.” Kibal said that stakeholders from the society, entrepreneurs and NGOs, all have to be part of the education delivery system.

The task is daunting. We need to focus on the 150 million children who do not go to school. The government alone can’t achieve the goal of education for all,” he added. Sibal also said that all states should chip in to improve education and make the right to education a success. “ It is not about politics, it is about education. It’s about every single child. We need a system in place for quality education and quality teachers.” Sibal spoke about the current shortage of teachers and how technology can help in bridging this gap.

“ If we have broadband and wireless connectivity then we can beam lectures straight to the classes.” The government’s dedication to the use of Information Communication and Technology ( ICT) to increase access to education among people residing in rural areas was also highlighted by Sibal. “ All schools will have an ICT ( Information and Communications Technology) teacher. We will pay their salary, which is Rs 10,000 per month.” Various advantages of adopting new technology were discussed during the meet. Sibal came up with an innovative idea to tackle the problem of absenteeism.

“ If every teacher has a mobile phone then the exact place where the teachers are at any point in time can be tracked.” The main challenge with moderisning are the heavy costs involved. Addressing this issue, Sibal said, “ We are open to any technology solution ( provided by private sectors) but it should not be elitist. The real problem is in rural India and we must keep that in mind. I think, the private sector can collaborate with the government and train these ICT teachers.

Sibal found a keen listener in Vinay Awasthi, director, Desktop Systems Group, Hewlett- Packard, India, who spoke about his company’s eagerness to participate in this process. “ We are trying develop technology which is suited to the Indian market. Lowering of cost is one of our major consideration.” Deepti Dang, head, marketing — Commercial & SMB, Personal Systems Group, Hewlett- Packard India Sales, spoke about ‘ multi- seat’, powered by Microsoft Windows Multi Point Server 2010.

“A multi- seat or multi- station is a single computer which supports multiple independent users at the same time and thus is one such technology that has the potential to bridge the digital divide through giving access to collaborative and economical technology,” she said.

At this point Sibal commented, “ The world must realise that future human capital will flow from India. They should make our population literate and take the benefit.” The minister also reiterated his point that his ministry is in touch with Nandan Nilekani, the chief of the Unique Identity Authority for an UID for every single student. “ Nandan has told me that he will work with us,” he said.

The panel discussion analysed the various avenues, including collaborative educational systems, tools like e- book readers, economical IT/ PC solutions to help bring the idea of quality education to Indian education system.