Information technology has brought far-reaching revolution in our lives. There is hardly an aspect of human activity that has not witnessed the impact. More importantly, the induction of this technology in the realm of education has brought about extraordinary change that is likely to give entirely new dimension to the system of education in contemporary times. One cannot visualize what will be the pattern of imparting education to the students from elementary to higher levels in next two or three decades. Will the school going kids have to do away with carrying huge bagful of books and copies to the school and replace this ass load with just a slim computer or an i-Pad? Will the world of knowledge open up before him by just pressing a few buttons? Will all paper work get squeezed into a sim card? These appear miracles but miracles are happening.
Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) is known to us mostly for launching satellites in the orbit or the space. That is very true and India has made much progress in space science. However one more and of course important service which ISRO is rendering is the launching of a space satellite for education technically called EDUSAT or Education Satellite. GSAT-3, known as EDUSAT is meant for distant classroom education from school to higher education level.. This was the first dedicated “Educational Satellite” that provides the country with satellite based two-way communication to classrooms for delivering educational materials. E-learning facility is presently available in the Education Minister a team of ISRO led by Virender, Director, Development Education and Communication Unit (DECU) and Murthy, Senior Scientist met with the State Education Minister in connection with expanding and upgrading the e-learning facility to the students at various levels. The Education Department has decided to establish an e-learning wing to develop e-content for ICT-enabled classrooms. the Education Department has already covered 400 Higher Secondary Schools in the State with ICT-enabled classrooms to facilitate e-learning while other schools including the high schools are being covered in a phased manner to facilitate smooth launch of the programme.
ISRO team has assured the Education Minister that they will examine and upgrade all the EDUSATs in J&K with latest technology and expand the facility, presently available in higher education sector only, to the school education sector as well. The Department of Education will sign MoU with ISRO in this regard. We consider it a big step towards providing educational facility to the student community of Jammu and Kashmir State but more particularly to the students living in remote areas of the hilly state who do not have many facilities of reaching higher levels of education. Owing to economic constraints many students from backward areas and weak pockets discontinue their education and are forced to cut short their educational career half way. But with e-learning facility there are fair chances for the talented students of the State to reach higher levels of education and thus prove an asset to themselves, their families and to the country.
The State and the student community of J&K should be thankful to the ISRO for the goodwill it has shown to the State in providing latest technology for e-learning. This show of goodwill by ISRO stands in direct contrast to the attitude of the anti-social elements that are out to deny the student community of Kashmir their right to education by asking them to indulge in sabotaging activities like damaging public property, throwing stones on security personnel who are there only to protect them against the vagaries of miscreants or torching the school buildings. How sad that those who are instigating the Kashmiri youth to violence and vandalism are not realising that they are committing unpardonable sin against the future generations of their community.
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