Dr. Dushyant Pradeep
The Digital revolution has evolved innovative changes in the Education landscape. Each and every institute is taking various steps in promoting and adopting digital education. Ministry of Human Resource Development has started so many Digital Initiatives in support. There are even more than 20 Digital platforms started by Govt. of India. Some of these novel initiatives are Study Webs of Active learning and Aspiring Minds (SWAYAM-India’s own MOOCs), Swayam Prabha, National Digital Library (that contains about 6.5 million books), National Academic Depository, NPTEl, ePathshala and NROER. The use of technology for online education and all the digital initiatives have the possibility to revolutionize complete Education scenario in the coming future. Other than the above-mentioned initiatives, MHRD has also started initiatives like “Cashless Campus” and Digital Financial Literacy of community by students. Fortunately, in these days of fast expanding IT facilities, the technology can be leveraged to address the twin concerns of enhancing access and quality. The use of technology in the field of Education also becomes imperative due to the certain factors:
Affordable
The online education is cheaper as compared to the formal education without compromising the quality.
High Quality
The content is directly delivered by the best Educators, assuring high quality of instruction.
Employability
Due to the flexible curriculum that is in line with the current academic and professional market requirements, the online education can enhance the employability quotient in the youth.
Use of internet
The IT infrastructure is expecting an increase in the internet users from 40 crores in 2016 to 73 crores by 2021. This will enhance the access of online courses to the students.
Smart Phones
The smart phone industry has expected an increase of smart phone users from 29 crores in2016 to 47crores in 2021. This would also help in facilitating the use of the online courses.
Skilling the unskilled
The Skill India Mission would certainly require such distance online courses for reaching out to the large number of unskilled or semi-skilled masses and to help them in upgrading their skills.
The education through this digital mode holds promise as it is accessible to everyone, affordable, can overcome the shortage of quality Educators and surely can enhance the enrolment in school and higher education system. Considering such factors the Government of India has launched the National Mission on Education through ICT (NMEICT) to translate the power of IT into expanded learning opportunities.
On the same Govt of Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir has taken so many steps to help the students of Jammu and Kashmir in many aspects such as Academics, Guidance & counselling, Stress Management and Career Guidance. Department of School Education has started different initiatives to address these issues of young masses of Union Territory. Some of these initiatives are:
a) Jammu and Kashmir Knowledge Network (JKKN)
It is an initiative to connect school children of J&K to world of knowledge through internet. The portal provides quality e-content for almost all the classes of school students and also provides the required technical support to the teachers involved in creation of e-content. The network connects a large number of ICT & CAL enabled schools across the union territory. The students can also have access to career information portal on the JKKN where they can receive information regarding to career and various professional examinations.
b) Manzilein (jkcareerportal.org)
The initiative is a career guidance programme of School Education Department (J&K) in coordination with SAMAGRA Shiksha. The platform provides a unique career dashboard to each student where he or she can access the information about 550+ careers (Professional and Vocational), 21000+ colleges, 262000+ programs in 16 countries, 1150+ entrance examinations and 1120+ scholarship opportunities. The students can login to the career dashboard by just entering their JKBOSE registration number and thereafter following the instructions available.
c) Aao Baat Karein
(Tele Counselling Helpline)
The Director School Education Jammu has started this platform for handling queries students, teachers, parents on anxiety, exams, e-resources, etc. by constituting a task force of mentors specially for the classes of 6th to 12th.
All the agencies related to the education and career development of students are putting their best initiatives to address different issues of the youth of the Nation, from distance learning to their placement in a better professional life. The initiatives are being assisted by the IT based platforms to have maximum accessibility by the students for their betterment and advancement. Now in this new era of DIGITAL INDIA the e-platforms are being used to deliver the class content at home and also to provide better career placements. The credit of this fast evolving digital education goes to the Educators/teachers, Technology experts and the better administration who are working 24X7 to change the face of education system.
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