The Hindu : National : EDUSAT programme launched in Orissa

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Oct 02, 2005

National

National

EDUSAT programme launched in Orissa

Staff Reporter

Four schools at Koraput, a backward district, connected through the virtual classroom

G. Madhavan Nair

BHUBANESWAR: Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation G. Madhavan Nair on Saturday underlined the need to use the developments in space technology to improve the lot of the common man.

At the launch of EDUSAT programme in Orissa, Mr. Nair said the pilot projects on village resource centres started by ISRO in Tamil Nadu and Kerala showed satisfactory results. Similar projects would be started in Orissa. The VRCs would provide multiple services, making the concept of e-governance a success. On EDUSAT programme being implemented through GRAMSAT project, Mr. Nair said an experiment in Bangalore had proved successful, with a single teacher being able to reach 3,000 engineering students in different parts of Karnataka through a virtual classroom.

Shortage of teachers

ISRO was working with 20 major universities and organisations to create 3,000 virtual classrooms by the year-end and 10,000 by the end of 2006. Around a lakh schools in different parts of the country required such facilities to impart quality education. As there was a shortage of good teachers at all levels, the State Governments should take measures to train more teachers to make EDUSAT programme beneficial to the people at large.

Four schools at Koraput, a backward district, were connected through the EDUSAT programme, which is being jointly implemented by ISRO and the Orissa Remote Sensing Application Centre (ORSAC).

Mr. Nair inaugurated the GRAMSAT studio at ORSAC's new building, opened by Chief Minister, Naveen Patnaik.

Mr. Patnaik said the programme would be extended to 1,000 schools in the State this year and 20,000 more schools in three years with financial assistance from the Centre.

N. Vijayaditya, Director-General, National Informatics Centre, and B.S. Bhatia, Director, Development and Educational Communication, Space Application Centre, ISRO, participated.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

National