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The Maharashtra government has taken a step forward in taking information technology to remote areas that do not have formal educational institutions. Mobile vans are set to bring computer literacy to people in these areas
Maharashtra has launched several mobile learning centres to equip people in remote parts of the state with basic computer skills and open the door to formal education. The Internet-backed literacy programme was launched recently in Mumbai by Home Minister R R Patil, with the first van sent out to a tribal area near Pune.
Eight such vans have been dispatched in the first phase of the initiative, which was conceptualised by Rajan Welukar, vice-chancellor of the Yashwantrao Chavan Maharashtra Open University. The university will collaborate with the Commonwealth Youth Programme Asia Centre and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in the programme's implementation.
The satellite-linked mobile learning vans cost Rs 11 lakh each. They are equipped with six computers, complete with multimedia systems and web cameras, and are connected by LAN. Each van seats 12 students at a time; these will include housewives, slum-dwellers and farmers. Several education programmes have been planned over a timeframe of three months, after which an online assessment will be conducted and certificates given out to those who pass an exam.
Email access will be provided and Edusat programmes telecast from the Open University's Nashik headquarters. Each van will cater to people within a 5 km radius, within the stipulated three-month period.
The computer literacy programme has been planned over a period of five years.
According to Patil, all disparities originate out of educational disparity. It is therefore important for the development of tribal and remote areas that people have better access to education and modern technology. "If people in remote and tribal areas are unable to come to the educational system, the universities should go to them," Patil stressed.
Source: Hindustan Times, February 13, 2006
http://www.webindia123.com/, February 8, 2006
UNI, February 8, 2006
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