Video editor: Deepthi ramdas
“If we cannot expand digital education, which we cannot do today, we must bite the bullet and say this is an empty year,” says Sam Pitroda, technocrat and former adviser to former Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh.
In an exclusive conversation with The fifth, Pitroda argued that India is not ready for digital technology and therefore should not ask parents of school-age children, especially from the economically weaker sectors, to pay fees when full services are not provided.
We don’t have the reliable access to broadband you need for education, because education isn’t just about text and voice, it’s about graphics, video animation, and interaction.
The fact that you provide digital devices and access does not guarantee that you can provide education. Because the teachers themselves don’t know how to handle computers. What are you saying? In village schools, they have never operated digital devices. So it is a huge task that we are not willing to accept.
We cannot take risks today to open schools, according to me. It is a huge risk. You know that we are putting our children, our teachers, our elderly people, our parents at risk, because the children go there, they pick up, they may not be so affected, but when they return home, their grandparents will be affected. . So, on the one hand, the crisis of the crown is spreading, and on the other hand, children need education. We are not prepared to provide digital education, so it is better to bite the bullet and say a moratorium for one year. These children are going to live a long time, from 80 to 100 years. So one year may not make much of a difference.
EXPEDITE BHARAT NET – Broadband connectivity to panchayats. It’s called Bharat Broadband or NOFN. We must accelerate and complete that program. That program is several years late. So each panchayat has broadband with 100MB of bandwidth.
EXPAND THE KNOWLEDGE NETWORK TO SCHOOLS – Next, we should look at another program called the National Knowledge Network, where we have spent billions of dollars building infrastructure to connect all the R&D labs in our universities. This infrastructure should also be extended to schools.
FOCUS ON TEACHER TRAINING, CONTENT CREATION – At the same time, we need to train our teachers. Along with that, we need to create the right content. Along with that, we need to create suitable platforms. Therefore, you must start on several fronts right now with a large commitment of financial resources.
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