The Hindu : E-learning and the widening gap

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jan 15, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

E-learning and the widening gap

EQUAL QUALITY education for all has been a goal the University Grants Commission (UGC) has been emphasising repeatedly over the past couple of months. And although the UGC Chairman, Arun Nigavekar, has been signalling towards e-learning being the important tool that will help bridge the differences between urban and rural educational centres, there is clearly much to be done.

An undergraduate student of Delhi University studying in one of the North Campus colleges may not think highly of the University's well-equipped library or sprawling campus, but for those studying in smaller educational institutes across the country, the difference in the quality of education they experience is perhaps far too great to be ignored.

As the 40-odd students who are currently touring North India as part of an Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad-sponsored Bharat Darshan Anubhav reveal, quality education is far from being the norm across the educational institutes of the country.

"We have no good universities in Sikkim and so we have to go to Bengal to study," was the plea of one student, while another student from Assam pointed out that they continue to follow an age-old syllabus, with others complaining of a no-teacher, no-books in libraries situation.

"The education system prevalent in Tripura offers such a limited scope. You are given a question bank from which the test questions are selected, making the learning process limited. It does not matter which medium your in, most people cannot speak proper English even after graduating with a BA, BSc or MSc degree," said a delegate from Tripura, Kishore Barua.

Aimed at promoting cultural exchanges between students from different parts, the Students' Experience in Inter-State Living (SIEL) was started in 1966. This year, nearly 80 students from various North-Eastern states were chosen for the programme. While 40 students were sent out to tour the South, the rest travelled to Delhi through Guwahati, Ahmedabad, Udaipur, Jaipur, Amritsar and Chandigarh.

What makes this exchange interesting is perhaps the fact that all students are made to stay in the house of a student in the visiting State for a better understanding of the socio-economical and political conditions.

Interestingly, most SEIL delegates in Delhi preferred to speak on the political conditions, the need to curb militancy and sealed borders to stop infiltration of illegal immigrants than lapses in the education system. But then, considering it took them a trip across the country to realise what all their system lacks, the UGC may need to do more than make its virtual dream a reality.

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AFTER HOSTING the Kunqu Opera and the National Youth Festival, XLRI Jamshepur is all set to provide a musical treat to students of this city. Beginning this Thursday is SPIC MACAY's Virasat'04 which will see performances from Pandit Ajay Pohankar, Pandit Vinayak Torvi and Ustad Fariduddin Dagar and Pandit Ragunath Seth apart from dance recitals by Rose Khan.

To be held in association with leading schools and colleges of the State as NIT, BIT Mesra, ISM Dhanbad, Birsa Agricultural University, Loyola School, JPS and Hilltop, the festival is an attempt at a different `management' ability for students of the institute.

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THE WORKING of the brain has enamoured scientists for long now. And speaking on "The Brain and Mind" this January 20 will be the director of National Brain Research Centre,Manesar, Dr. Vijayalakshmi Randranath. To be held at the India International Centre, the head of the Psychiatry Department of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Dr. Rajat Ray will chair the discussion which will be held between 6-30 p.m. and 8 p.m.

Lakshmi Balakrishnan

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