The Hindu : New Delhi News : Kalam for integrated mission to provide quality education to all

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Dec 09, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

Kalam for integrated mission to provide quality education to all

Staff Reporter

"Make students partners in teaching, learning process... ."

NEW DELHI: Emphasising that computer literacy should not be restricted only to the use of computers, President A.P.J Abdul Kalam on Wednesday said the need was to provide learning tools such as comprehensive e-learning packages on various subjects with illustrations to make learning interesting and productive.

"The students must also be given opportunity to work on certain projects on the computer with an access to Internet which will reinforce the learning and enable them to enhance the learning capacity and knowledge. It is essential to make the student an active partner in the teaching and learning process," he said addressing the 3rd Annual Computer Literacy Excellence Awards 2004 function organised by the Union Ministry of Communication and Information Technology here.

"There is need for an integrated mission to provide cost-effective computers and quality content and teaching through tele-education connectivity to reach out to a large number of schools. This integrated mission will certainly provide an equitable access to quality education to the millions of students and reduce drop-outs in a big way."

Stating that good teachers in schools should develop learning materials and make them available to every child free across the country, the President suggested that the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology and the Ministry of Human Resource Development identify syllabi for each course in classes to develop the e-learning material for a specific format and pedagogy.

Pointing out that India was far behind in creation of virtual laboratories due to the lack of adequate bandwidth at affordable cost, Mr. Kalam said this situation had to be remedied.

Pointing out that schools in both urban and rural areas had a problem of experienced teachers, the President noted that the teacher-student ratio was very low. "It is impossible for a teacher to pay attention to each student in the available 40-minute period in a class. This results in dilution of the quality and non-recognition of creative students, some times leading to drop outs. We need to bridge this gap by providing technology tools, connectivity and content with quality teachers, which will create and maintain the interest of the students in the learning process."

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