digitalLEARNING-Dec-2011-[46]-Gujarat Bringing Education through Innovation

AsiA’s First Monthly MAgAzine on iCt in eduCAtion

Gunotsav | scope | Gks | chalo colleGe e-abhiyan | Rte

voluMe 7 i issue 12 i deCeMber 2011 i issn 0973-4139 i `75 www.digitalleArning.in

gujaratthrough innovation

bringing education

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contentsissue 12

07volume

ssN 0973-4139

State will Need Millions of Skilled WorkforceSajeev Karuthody, Director- Special Projects, Edutech

ICT can be used for Achieving a Co-scholastic Outcome Sudarshan Borker, Business Head, IE Education Private Limited

ICT Enabled Education-Makes Education Valuable in Gujarat Rupesh Kumar Shah, CEO and Co-Founder, InOpen Technologies

Schools on Wheel’ will go a Long Way in Addressing the Digital Divide Anil Goyal, Director, Mexus Education

Out-of-class Activities should be Conducted Regularly Saurabh Sethi, Vice President, Mosaic Network (India) Pvt. Ltd

Gujarat Leads in Adopting IT in Education Veena Raizada, Director (Academics), Next Education

Method of Delivery needs to be Structured and Consistent Meena Ganesh, CEO and MD, Pearson Education Services

CASE STUDYTransforming Education

LEADER SpEAkEducating GujaratR P Gupta, Secretary (Primary Education), Gujarat

providing Expansion, Inclusion and ExcellenceJayanti Ravi - Commissioner of Higher Education, Government of Gujarat

It is Important to Ensure that 100 Out of 100 Students Should Achieve a Minimum Basic Education till class 8thManoj Aggarwal - a Gujarat cadre IAS officer

ACADEMIA SpEAk

Educating GujaratDr. Akshai Aggarwal, Vice Chancellor, Gujarat Technological University

pHOTO FEATURE

Gunotsav

INDUSTRY SpEAk

Gujarat has immense potential to become India’s major IT hubRohit Pande, CEO, Classteacher Learning Systems

Gain at GrassrootsBy Dhirendra Pratap Singh

Shiksha

Eureka.in: Visual Aid for Understanding Science and Maths

Shodhganga: A National Repository of ETD

Implementation of IT at Gujarat Technological University

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COVER STORY

PROjECT SHOWCASE

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“Gujarat, with its all inclusive, sustainable and rapid growth, is emerging as a globally preferred place to live in and to do business.”

Over the years, the Gujarat has emerged as one of the most dynamic, prosperous, investor friendly and fastest growing states of India. The importance of well thought governance initiatives with significant use of technology in this success cannot be overemphasized.

Good Governance is the key to sustainable development. The state has been constantly innovating, aiming at excellence in governance. The opportune understanding of the importance of technology in effective and efficient delivery of services has enabled the state to take up many innovative steps for empowering people.

While the State’s emphasis has been on building educational infrastructure, training of teachers and computerization of schools, we have successfully been able to come up with 11 new universities, 400 colleges, 1.25lakh new teachers, 38000 new schoolrooms and to double the seats for technical courses. The State has witnessed a massive reduction in the dropout rate at all primary levels.Improvement in the health and nutritional status of the population has been one of the major thrust areas of the social development programmes in the state. Over the years, Gujarat has developed good health infrastructure and human resources. The state has initiated a wide variety of Public – Private collaborations, involving NGOs/Private Sector practitioners. Gujarat is now emerging as a global medical tourism destination.

It gives us immense pleasure to share with you that Department of Science and Technology, Government of Gujarat and Elets Technomedia Pvt Ltd are jointly organizing eINDIA 2011, an annual ICT conference and exhibition at Mahatma Mandir International Convention Centre, Gujarat from December 15 – 17, 2011 as one of the prelude/precursors and warm up exercises to Vibrant Gujarat 2013. The vision roadmap that we have carved for the state will certainly get reflected in various thematic conferences under the umbrella of eINDIA 2011.

We warmly welcome all delegates and look forward to participating in what promises to be an immensely enriching event.

(Narendra Modi)

MESSAGE

december / 2011www.digitallearning.in6 digitalLEARNING

Prof S S Mantha, Chairman (Acting), All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE)

Prof. V N Rajasekharan Pillai, Vice Chancellor, Indira GandhiI National Open University (IGNOU)

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Advisory BoArd

Prof. asha kanwar, Vice President, Commonwealth of Learning

dr. Jyrki Pulkkinen, CEO, Global eSchools & Communities Initiative (GeSCI)

Subhash Chandra khuntia, Principal Secretary to Government, Public Works Department, Government of Karnataka

Asia’s first Monthly Magazine on e-Government

(www.egovonline.net)

Key HighlightsCover Story Why Gujarat Leads India?

With a host of new ICT initiatives Gujarat will soon be India’s new ICT hub. The story explores the various reasons why Gujarat is fast becoming the most favoured IT destination and the most e-Ready state of India.

Project showcase: The section highlights the key initiatives of the Gujarat Government

interviews: RM Patel, Addl Chief Secretary, Panchayats, Govt of Gujarat; KR Gururaja Rao, Chairman & MD, GIL

Guest Articles by: Neeta Shah, Director (e-Governance), GIL; Manoj Aggarwal, IGP, Gujarat; Guruprasad Mohapatra, Municipal Commissioner, AMC

The Enterprise of Healthcare(www.ehealthonline.org)

Key HighlightsCover Story setting the stage for Health renaissance - With the surge of new ideas, approaches and institutions in Gujarat, the state has become one of the most favoured medical destinations in the recent times. eHealth analyses on public health services in Gujarat.

Tech Trends in Gujarat Hospitals: The polarizing image of Gujarat has another chance to glimmer with its grandiose plans to integrate and redefine the ICT architecture of hospitals

Interviews:Anju Sharma, Mission Director, NRHM, Gujarat

P. K. Taneja Commissioner of Health, Gujarat

Dr Rajiv Sharma, CEO, Sterling Hospitals, Ahmedabad

Dr Vikram Shah, Chaiman, Shalby Hospitals

Dr Kirti m Patel, Dean, Gujarat Cancer Society and Medical College

inbox

digitalLEARNINGDecember / 2011www.digitallearning.in

December / 2011www.digitallearning.in 7PBdigitalLEARNING

Flourishing Education in GujaratGujarat is at the forefront of India’s economic boom. Some of the largest indus-trial groups in the country are based in the state. The business friendly attitude of the people has turned the state into a favoured investment destination. The role played by Chief Minister Narendra Modi in taking Gujarat’s economy to dazzling heights is most laudable. Modi is mindful of the fact that the state can retain its pace of growth only if it is home to a citizenry whose knowledge and training are of global standard. Education is the key to the state’s success.

Gujarat is on the verge of becoming India’s IT and manufacturing hub; now many IT related tools are being used to take education to grassroots levels. Quality education that not only offers knowledge, but also improves the employ-ability of the scholars, is being made available to every cross-section of society. State has taken various initiatives like Gunotsav, SCOPE, GKS and much else to incorporate the ideals of access, equity and excellence in education.

In order to highlight the fantastic reforms and growth in the state’s education sector, we have decided to bring together a platform that connects all the stake holders. Hence, this year we are organizing 7th eINDIA , India’s Largest event on Information and Communication Technologies, in Gujarat. This is our at-tempt to create a platform for enlightening discussions on the best ways of developing education in the country.

Among other things, the current issue of digitalLEARNING, ‘Gujarat Education Edition,’ focuses on the eINDIA 2011. We do our best to shed light on the edu-cational initiatives being undertaken in Gujarat. Starting with the vision of Nar-endra Modi, the ICT related views of Sri Ravi Saxena, and also the views of the myriad stake holders from industry and academia, we have stitched together a spectrum of opinions for generating this collector’s issue.

We look forward to your participation in the issue.

See you at

Dr. Ravi [email protected]

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AnniversAry issue JAnuAry 20127th

For Editorial Enquiries:Pragya Gupta, E: [email protected], M: +91 8860651648

For Advertisement Enquiries:Fahimul Haque, E: [email protected], M: +91 8860651632

year roundup

tech trends, dIrectIons,

pLans

digitalLEARNINGDecember / 2011www.digitallearning.in

December / 2011www.digitallearning.in PB10 digitalLEARNING

The Technological Zeitgeist of Education The entire concept of education is now changing. With explosion of digital content, what is the future of books? As the online space makes it possible for students and teachers to interact in a virtual medium, what is the future of classrooms? How much impact will Internet have on schools, students and literacy rates in, say, ten years of time?

These are all very pertinent questions, and there are no clear answers. The future is changing at such a rapid pace that the concept of education is expected to be constantly buffeted by winds of new technology. It is possible for today’s students to go online for hearing a lecture on physics, mathematics or any other subject. Even the post lecture discussion can be held online. Students in different parts of the country and even the world can get involved in a discussion. There is enough scope for teachers to add value to the discussion that is going on. The online space tends to be a great equaliser. The rich and the poor can participate in the same forum and develop new knowledge and perspectives.

Under the stewardship of Chief Minister Narendra Modi, Gujarat is making rapid strides in education and a lot of technological systems for education are evolving. These systems enhance the quality of education, and also make it possible for a larger number of students to become enrolled. For instance, there are tools being used that make it possible for taking the educational infrastructure to the student’s doorstep. These kinds of systems can be especially useful for students living in remote villages.

The manufacturing industries and the IT sector in Gujarat are booming. Students from lower sections of society are particularly impassioned about learning to use computers, for they see such training as a way of rising in life. As more and more people embrace a new technology, it leads to further innovation and the creation of a new round of advanced services and products. On its part, new innovations al-ways lead to more people joining the technology bandwagon. Hence the process is, in many ways, capable of growing from strength to strength.

The bottom line is that as far as education is concerned, it is certainly true that we are living in most exciting times.

Prof. Sudhir K JainDirectorIIT Gandhinagar

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Gain at GrassrootsAn invigorating breeze of education is sweeping across Gujarat. Ordinary people have started enjoying easier access to latest ideas, which act like a catalyst for resolution of socio-economic issues and creation of a more cohesive society

According to the census, the literacy rate in Gu-jarat for the year 2011 is 79.31 percent. This is an improvement in comparison to the year 2001, when the rate was 69.14 percent. This 10.17 percent rise signifies the amount of work that has been put in for making education available to every inhabitant of Gujarat. The state ranks 9th on the Education De-velopment Index (EDI). EDI is prepared after taking into account four components — access, infrastruc-ture, teachers and outcomes. In case of access, two important factors were looked into — availability of schools per 1,000 child population and ratio of pri-mary to upper primary schools.

‘Smart Goals,’ which envisage ‘Education for All’ is a major project of the Gujarat education depart-ment. The education policies are geared to promote literacy and reduce dropout rates. The focus is on girl education and training of teachers. The Govern-ment is focussing on primary education, secondary education, higher education, continuous education, literacy education, technical education and phar-macy education.

As per Gujarat Infrastructure Development Board (GIDB), Gujarat had an estimated 8.2 million children enrolled in the primary classes, with the Gross Enrolment Ration (GER) touch-ing almost 100 percent. There were about 2.77 million children enrolled in institutions imparting secondary and higher sec-ondary education. The schools that have been established by the Government of Gujarat are administered by the Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education board, which is also known as GSHSEB.

Every year the state government evaluates its primary schools, and council of ministers; top bureaucrats and eminent persons visit schools across the state for three days for the purpose of ranking them. The state government has launched the ‘Gunot-sav’ programme to raise the quality of education in government

run primary schools. In evaluating the effectiveness of the pro-gramme, the NGO Pratham will evaluate the students.

Massive MovementAs per Planning Commission of India, women’s education in Gujarat in 2001 stood at 20th position, with literacy rate among females at 48.1 percent. In 2009, the state adopted “Kelavani Rath,” which has now turned into a massive movement. Gov-ernment charts out plans to enroll 525,000 girls in the state in Kanya Kelavani drive. It covers 1,865 routes and as a result, there is 100 percent enrollment and reduction in the dropout rate from 40 percent to 2.29 percent. Similarly, Girl Child Edu-cation program covers almost 18,000 villages, where the litera-cy rate is below 20 percent. The focus is on identified suburbs of the urban areas to spread the message of education.

By Dhirendra Pratap Singh

cover story


Gujarat has recently passed the Private Universities bill, which allow formation of private universities without having to pass legislation through the Assembly

The Government has plans to make Jyoti-Gram and broad-band connectivity available in all villages. Also, education would be one of the major sectors in the Gram Mitra Yojna comprising of five Gram Mitra departments: agriculture, health, education, and human development. Government schemes like Bal Pravesh and Nirogi Bal are also a part of the Kanya Kelavani campaign. Under the Nirogi Bal and Bal Pravesh schemes, the government ensures that the child is healthy while attending schools.

Insurance and HealthFinancial aid schemes like Vidhyalaxmi Bond Yojna and insur-ance schemes like Vidhyadeep Yojna are implemented by the government with the objective of providing education related aid to families. Health of school children is also a focus. With co-operation of WHO and World Bank “Health Developing School-Programme” is being implemented in Gujarat. The Government adopts technology by promoting computer aided learning, which is expected to benefit around 8,50,000 students of gov-ernment run schools in Gujarat. It also aims to foster educa-tion in rural places and set path of development with continuous power supply and broadband connectivity. In this way, computer training is being enhanced for primary level education in Gujarat.

Gujarat is focussed on ensuring maximum enrollment of boys and girls in primary schools. To encourage girl child education, Vidhyalaxmi Bonds are operational in all areas low literacy rates. This serves as an incentive to poor parents to send their daugh-ters to schools. Under Vidhya Deep Yojna, the insurance pre-mium is paid by the government to ensure financial assistance to parents in case of untoward incident.

Higher EducationGujarat houses some of the best higher educational institutions in the country, namely the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad, Nirma Institute of Technology and Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information & Communication Technology, which are

also known worldwide for their quality education and research. Gujarat is now planning to add another 500 seats in medical education next year. It recently received approval for around 500 medical seats from the Medical Council of India, MCI. MCI has approved 150 seats each at medical colleges in Sola and Bhuj as well as at the Gujarat Cancer Research Society run medical college in Ahmadabad. In addition, 50 seats have been increased at the Bhavnagar Medical College. The state is expecting approval for the new medical college at Gotri in Vadodara and at Valsad. The government is working on creat-ing a state-level body on the lines of the MCI that will be em-powered to approve post graduate medical courses.

Gujarat has recently passed the Private Universities Bill, which allow formation of private universities without having to pass legislation through the Assembly for the same. An insti-tution wanting to acquire the university status can apply to the department of education for the same.

However, there are some challenges in higher education. Gujarat has 20 districts where enrollment is 12.7 percent, which is below the national average. Besides this, there is an acute shortage of teaching staff in the higher education institutions of Gujarat, according to the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG). The report also says that 60 percent institutions have not obtained NAAC/NBA accreditation. These issues should be addressed as quickly as possible.

schemes Adopted to enhance education

Primary education• VidhyalaxmiBondYojna• VidhyadeepYojna• TheGirlChildDevelopmentProgram• School-HealthCheck-upProgram• ComputerTrainingatthePrimaryEducationallevel

secondary and Higher secondary Department• Diplomafortheteacherstoimprovetheirteachingskills(Teacher’sTrainingProgram)• CommonEntranceTestforadmission• TeleconferenceforthestudentsofStd.10thand12th.

technical education• Selfemploymentprogramsforthewomen

If you wish to offer Cogmed training in your school, Cogmed training in your area as a Cogmed Practice, function as a trained Psychologist

for a Cogmed Practice or as a trained Cogmed Coach, please contact Pranjal Barma at [email protected] or on 080 4215 3437.

Case study


TransformingEducation From systemic professional development practices in context of a teacher, to learner centered educational approaches, Intel’s education Transformation model is helping prepare India’s next generation for success

Case study


Case study


Sixty kilometers from Ahmedabad, in Mehsana district, there is the village called Gozaria. A large grouping of vil-lage inhabitants has gathered at Smt MK Patel High School to listen to a speech on heart disease. Health offic-ers of the area are also present. But it’s not a cardiologist who is the speaker. It is students of class 9 and 10. They do a multimedia presentation on heart disease, highlighting how our lifestyle can lead to clogged arteries and heart attacks. There are animated videos on various types of heart surgeries, as well as interviews with heart patients and doctors, that drive home the fact that by changing our diet we have a good chance of countering heart re-lated diseases. The audience leaves the school with an increased awareness about the heart.

How did this happen? How have students from a village become capable of making such an impact in their community? How did their teacher impart such knowledge to them?“Digital learning and technology create miracles, not just in the classroom, but outside as well,” says Jitendra Kumar Pa-tel, a science teacher, who is credited with enabling his stu-dents to speak convincingly on the abstruse subject of heart diseases. Patel started his career in the traditional ‘chalk and talk’ methodology. He had a transformational experience when he attended the Intel Teach program, back in 2001. “This training changed my outlook towards education and showed

me a new way in which technology and digital learning could transform traditional classrooms into 21st century classrooms, and foster higher order thinking, technological skills and vari-ous other skills in students,” Patel says.

That’s exactly what Intel set out to achieve when it started the Intel Teach program in Gujarat. The program has covered 26 districts so far. Over 110,000 teachers from government and private schools, and 112,874 Teacher Educators and Student Teachers from 280 colleges have been trained.

To reach out to various schools in these districts, Intel works with various state-level organizations, such as Gujarat Second-ary and Higher Secondary Education Board (GSHSEB), Sarva Shkisha Abhiyan (SSA), Gujarat Council of Education Research and Training (GCERT) and Commissioner of Schools. Intel is col-

• Policy: Policies—designed to ensure that all students obtain the skills necessary to succeed in a knowledge-based economy and society—are of key importance for governments to remain globally competitive.

• Curriculum Standards and Assessment: Curriculum standards must be adapted to ensure students learn the critical skills and knowledge to succeed in the global economy. So we need to have in place the system that can conduct robust assessment of a student’s knowl-edge and skills.

• Professional Development: Teacher’s need to change their method of teaching for creating a student-centered learning environment. New teaching methods, such as inquiry- and project-based approaches, should be used. Teachers need tools and training to adjust their peda-gogic approaches to take advantage of a transformed learning environment and available technology tools.

• Information and Communications Technologies

(ICT): ICT is an es-sential foundation for a transformed learn-ing environment. Broadband Internet connectivity, an in-frastructure for man-aging student infor-mation and content resources, appropriate software applications, and oper-ating environments, are some of the basic factors that need to be in place.

• Research and Evaluation: Research can provide im-portant guidance to governments and other stakeholders as they define their education reform programs. Educa-tion transformation plans should include well defined metrics of success and program evaluation from the very start to measure impact.

Intel’s Model for education transformation

Case study


laborating with the Commissioner of Schools to train teachers from over 3,600 schools in the state. Intel also signed the World Ahead State MoU with the Education and Tribal Department to support the state Chief Minister’s 10-point program, as part of Vibrant Gujarat Summit 2009. Intel works with NGOs, and local companies to enable the implementation of its initiatives.

The Gujarat government is serious about enabling educa-tion in the state. At a recent Intel Teach training event held at Gandhinagar, CV Som, Commissioner, Schools, urged teachers to make use of the facilities being made available. He said, “All Grant in Aid secondary schools in the state have been given 11 desktop computers, one LCD TV, a scanner and printer under the ICT @ School scheme. Schools need to make most use of it. Intel is providing free training and every teacher should make the best use of this opportunity.”

Ushering in ChangeIntel has been committed to education transformation for more than a decade now. The company believes that improvements in education can only happen through a holistic and systemic approach, which takes into account the critical and interrelated components of education transformation.

The model for successful education transformation lever-aged by Intel includes policy, curriculum standards and assess-ment, professional development, information and communica-tions technology (ICT), and research and evaluation. When all of these components are successfully integrated and imple-mented, real education transformation can take place.

Benefits from Education TransformationEffective education transformation brings a number of ben-efits. Research has shown that quality education has a direct impact on economic growth.

Under the guidance of their science teacher, Jitendra Kumar Patel, students of class 9 and 10 went about doing a project on heart disease with an aim to educate their community on the topic. They conducted interviews of doctors and patients. They did Internet research, collected animated videos and pictures. They worked together as a cohesive team to com-plete the project. The project went on to win Intel – Gujarat Government Technology in Education Award 2010.

Patel found a huge change in students as they worked on this project.• Access to the Internet and interactive technological re-

sources evoked interest and participation from students• Selflearningdemonstratedbystudents• Studentswhousuallyneedmoresupportinclasspartici-

pated in the project enthusiastically• Providedtheopportunitytobecreative,askquestions• Enabled peer learning, self assessment, peer assess-

ment, etc.

Patel has been using technology in classrooms for many

years now. Here’s how Intel’s training has enabled him:• Prepares presentations, digital lessons andmultimedia

projects and helps other teachers to do the same• Runsaneducationblog• Isinvitedasaresourcepersontodeliversessionsonsci-

ence topics by BISAG

And it’s not just Patel, other teachers from across the state have similar stories to tell. “Technology integration has helped me in my relationship

with students. While implementing project based learn-ing in my classroom I have been able to provide world-class training to my students,” Tejas Thakkar, Teacher, Doon International School, Ahmedabad.

A teacher at Jainachary Anandghansuri Vidhyalay, Himmat-nagar, Sabarkantha, Mitesh Bhatt, says, “By using tech-nology, we have improved the art of teaching. We have observed students showing positive results as part of the collaborative learning and interaction that happens in class now.”

transformation Possible

• Increasing student competitivenessbydeveloping skillssuch as digital literacy, problem solving, critical thinking and collaboration.

• Helpingcitizensdeveloplifelonglearningskills,andbetterpreparing them for current and future employment.

• Creating economic development as local businessesbenefit from a better-educated citizenry and workforce.

• Creatingmoresocialcohesionandabettersocialclimateas access to technology, the Internet, and digital content narrows the digital divide and creates opportunities.

• Immediate economic benefits to local businesses thathelp develop and deliver education solutions.

There’s no doubt that education transformation has a huge impact on the society. Intel believes in creating economic and social opportunities for all. And that’s why Intel works with governments to improve the quality of their education system using a holistic model. Replicating this model all over India is Intel’s mission so that the objectives of the country become inclusive and the goal of universal education is reached.

“Secondary schools in the state have been given 11 desktop computers, one Lcd TV, a scanner and printer under the IcT @ School scheme. Schools need to make most use of it”-C V Som,

Commissioner, Schools, Government

of Gujarat

leader speak


educating GujaratR P Gupta, Secretary (Primary education), Gujarat, talks to Anand Agarwal on educational initiatives being undertaken in Gujarat.

Kindly apprise us about the implementation status of Sarva Sikhsa Abhiyaan (SSA) in Gujarat? We are one of the leading states as far as the implementation of SSA is concerned, even though we are having access to far less funds than many other states. Making it possible for all the children to have primary education is our main responsibility. Currently we have a success level of about 98.8 percent. We are also trying to ensure that children should be enrolled in school. At times, socioeconomic factors like religious belief, family re-quirement and migration come in the way of students getting

education. But under SSA we are trying to ensure that we do not miss a single child.

Recently, we have enacted the Right to Education. Kindly brief us about what are the obligations of the state under this act. How far has Gujarat been able to meet these obligations?Under Right to Education the state is obliged to provide educa-tion to all. We must understand that this act has been enacted keeping entire country in mind, it has not been enacted for the

leader speak


to the children. We provide mid-day meals to about 41 lakh children per day in all our schools and out of schools learn-ing centres. Roughly 60 percent of the total children are tak-ing advantage of mid-day meal scheme. There are issues concerning the quality of food, but we have taken steps for training our cooks for preparing quality and tasty food. As far as the nutritional part is concerned, we have taken steps like fortification of flour; we are adding soybeans to improve nutritional value of the food. Gujarat unfortunately has been lagging due to its dietary habits. Many people in the state do not take green vegetables in their food. This aspect is wor-rying for us and we are trying to devise ways and means for addressing this deficiency which arises due to lack of veg-etables in diet. It is possible that the kitchen gardens in each school can be used as a resource for mid-day meals. We are also engaging voluntary agencies or non-governmental agencies for providing mid day meal to the children. For ex-ample, Akshaypatra is covering quite a few Talukas. They prepare the food centrally and add adequate quantity of veg-etables to it.

What has been a better model- doing it yourself or engaging NGOs like Akshaypatra?We carried out a study by engaging an agency that was tasked to compare the two models. Definitely the NGO model of cen-tralised kitchen and food being sent to the different schools everyday has drawn lot of positive feedback from schools, parents and the students. Quality wise and taste wise food prepared by NGOs is more nutritious and tasty.

Will this model be replicated across the state?Getting food from NGOs has its own limitations. We don’t have adequate number of NGOs with adequate capabil-ities. So procuring mid-day meals from NGOs is much better for urban areas. NGOs might not be able to deliver in inac-cessible areas. We are trying to engage NGOs to the extent possible.

states that are already doing well in primary education sector. Gujarat is one of the states where we have achieved the goals of Right to Education (RTE) even before the enactment of the act. We already have adequate number of primary schools. The act also mandates that all the schools should have sufficient number of teachers and other staff. That has also been achieved. Infrastructure facilities like separate toilet for boys and girls, and other infrastructure in all the schools is in place. All schools have drinking water facility, and are electrified. Per-haps we are short of classrooms and separate sanitation blocks for boys and girls. This issue will be attended to within one or two years.

We have been hearing about the GUNOTSAV scheme quite a lot. Could you please give us some idea about how this scheme works? What are its main objectives? This scheme is mainly designed to improve the quality of prima-ry education. Till 2009, we were mainly focussed on bringing all the children to the school. We have almost achieved that objec-tive. Only some marginal groups are left. GUNOTSAV focuses primarily on improving the quality of education. The quality of education can be improved only if we can provide all the inputs like classrooms, teachers, infrastructure facilities, and all kind of teaching and learning aids. There must also be timely reviews of the training that the teachers are offering. Under GUNOTSAV the government tests all the children and on basis of the results, we provide grades to each teacher and school. Based on that grade, the teacher knows where he/she stands and what the outcome of his /her efforts is. This is how we address the aspect of quality. Measuring the performance of about 70 lakh children studying in 34 thousand schools is a mammoth task.

Has this resulted in some demonstrable improvement in quality of education?So far no study has been carried out because we started this scheme only in 2009 -2010 and this will only be the third year. As far as the improvement in the education is concerned we first carried out this program in November 2009, after that there were only 4 to 5 months available to the teachers for improving their performance for the next academic year. However, the results that we got during the last year’s Gunotsav were very encourag-ing. There was about 15 percent improvement as far as the per-formance of Gunotsav’10 to Gunotsav’09 was concerned. More than anything else, the scheme has led to greater awareness on the issue of quality of education.

There have been some reports from planning commission that state has been lagging in providing mid-day meals to the students. What steps have been taken to address these issues?State has not been lagging in providing the mid-day meals

State has not been lagging in providing mid-day meals to

children. We provide mid-day meals to about 41 lakh children

per day across all our schools, and also in many learning

centres

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leader speak


providing expansion, Inclusion and excellenceJayanti ravi, commissioner of Higher education, Government of Gujarat, talks to Anand Agarwal about issues related to higher education in Gujarat. She expresses her views on how access, excellence and equity can be ushered into the State’s educational ecosystem

Gujarat has committed itself to transforming the quality of life of its citizens through various new initiatives. Many of these initia-tives pertain to education, particularly tertiary education.

To make all this possible, we have established the Knowl-edge Consortium of Gujarat (KCG), which along with the Of-fice of the Commissioner, strives to facilitate these initiatives that involve all stakeholders in education.

Education and Extension Changes in the basic curriculum and academic system have been ongoing through a shift from the conventional system to the Choice Based Credit System (CBCS). This offers immense flexibility in choice of courses, choice in the teaching-learning methodologies, choice in evaluation and even transfer of credit for students who drop out. The on demand, online examination option is being rolled out.

In addition, we have distance education through universities such as the Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar Open University for further enhancing the Gross Enrolment Ratio.

To enhance access, we have Sandhan, an integrated all Gu-jarat classroom providing a platform for communication across colleges through audio-video tools telecast through the V-SAT. Every college has a room dedicated for receiving lectures by eminent speakers not just from the State but also those with National and International repute. More than 1000 hours of programme have been telecast every year since 2009 covering Science, Arts, Commerce, Employability and all higher educa-tion initiatives.

Saptadhara is a unique initiative for students to unleash their creativity under seven bands – knowledge band, crea-tive expression band, fine arts band, theatre band, music and dance, yoga and sports, community/social service band.

leader speak


mode, along with University of Cambridge. SCOPE is commit-ted to empowering and fortifying the youth of Gujarat with profi-ciency in English. Over 2 lakh youth have already been certified through SCOPE so far through more than 400 Training Centres from across the State.

We have set up the Gujarat Education Innovation Commis-sion (GEIC), which identifies several innovations in schools and colleges under various heads. So as to recognize and felicitate excellence, these innovations are identified, documented and dis-seminated.

There is the Indian Institute of Teacher Education (IITE), which aims at integrated development of students into excel-lent teachers through its unique curriculum and androgogical and pedagogical methods.

Children University, focuses on education, extension, re-search and teaching on all aspects of Children ranging from nutrition to health, toys, games and education with the motto ‘every child matters’ in a ‘life cycle’ approach.

MMI – A powerful mechanism Access, excellence and equity are ensured through the Mission Mode Implementation (MMI) mechanism in Education. We have approximately 927 colleges in 33 Higher Education District as against the 26 Administrative Districts.

5 Clusters of 5 colleges each, form one Higher Education District (HED) i.e., 25 colleges form every district. Every HED has two District Coordinators and every Cluster has one Clus-ter-Coordinator. The district also has one Prabhari Professor from the University, to which it is affiliated and additionally, six student ambassadors per District. MMI has now become an active network through which we disseminate and collect infor-mation or implement initiatives effectively.

Academic and Administrative Audit (AAA) of all Institutions of Higher Education has also been implemented in order to mentor Institutions and provide support wherever necessary.

We have recently begun an awareness campaign called ‘Chalo College E Abhiyaan’ during which members from TEAM Higher Education, fanned out into various Higher Education Institutions. The aim is to mentor students, faculty members and principals in the ongoing Initiatives of the State Govern-ment and to simultaneously take stock of their progress being made across the State.

Various new Institutions like Central University, IIT Gandhina-gar as well as the large number of private universities, are also, contributing significantly to ensure that the educational ecosys-tem in Gujarat is functioning well. All these reforms have been possible with the high level of political commitment of the State leadership. The partnership of all the Vice- Chancellors and the entire higher education team has also played a keyrole.

The basic philosophy behind all these efforts in the Educa-tion space is to mobilise community involvement in a sustain-able manner. Gujarat is working towards quality enhancement by providing equity, access and excellence in Education thus preparing to face a progressive global and challenging scenario with bold and confident strides.

Saptadhara provides a platform to hone the multiple intel-ligence of students. This also develops the physical, ethical, mental, aesthetic, reflective and spiritual dimensions of stu-dents’ personality. Students participate in large numbers at college level, district level, zonal level eventually culminating into a competition at State level. In all, 2350 students have par-ticipated at the State level in the competition during 2009-2011.

We also have a placement initiative called Udisha that helps students become more confident and empowered in making ca-reer choices. 436 colleges have been given basic financial sup-port to set up Udisha Clubs through which student registration, pre-placement training, job fairs and counselling are offered.

To strengthen the entire system, a recruitment drive is on in the Office of Commissioner, through an Online Job Applica-tion System. Likewise, Office automation is in progress and all these efforts address access of stake holders to service deliv-ery substantially.

Capability BuildingKarmayogi Talim, a three day Programme for principals, initiated in 2008, has conducted ongoing and approximately 12,500 man-days of training in various competencies. The objective of these programmes is to ensure capability building of teachers, admin-istrators and librarians, empowering them to be facilitators and motivators for students in a learner centric education system.

Training is also being imparted in ICT so that teachers and students are equipped to use the emerging technologies of the 21st century. Yet another programme called KMP-Knowledge Management Programme, focusing on training for faculties in language skills, ICT skills, and professional development through more research. Launched in 2008, KMP helps enhance ICT and Communication skills of teachers and students to promote basic research skills.

Research Further, a drive to strengthen research, through workshops and training specially to give impetus to research projects and doc-toral research in various subjects with support from nationally acclaimed academicians. The University Text Book Board has published research journals and more than 120 text books with community involvement.

A Compendium of Doctoral Dissertations and Patents in Universities of Gujarat has been compiled and published for reference to enable further research.

Other Initiatives – SCOPE, GEIC, IITE, Children UniversityOne of our important initiatives, the Society for Creation of Op-portunity through Proficiency in English (SCOPE), has been set up by the Government of Gujarat in public-private partnership

KmP helps enhance IcT and communication skills of teachers and students to promote basic research skills

feature


Celebrating

QualityThe Gunotsav InitiativeIn 2009, Government of Gujarat began a novel initiative called Gunotsav, which aims at bringing quality to primary education. Led by cm himself, ministers and officials visit primary schools for three days every year

Gunotsav, a three-day annual programme aimed at improving quality of primary educa-tion in Government of Gujarat-run schools, is now in its third year. Senior functionaries, in-cluding the Chief Minister and other ministers, and approximately 3000 government officials, including senior IAS, IFS and IPS officers, per-sonally visit over 30,000 primary schools.

Students are assessed on basis of their reading, writing and math skills. Students till the fifth standard are tested in Hindi, Gujarati and Math. Students of 6-8 standards are also tested in English. The identity of the school, which has to be visited, remains a secret till the day of inspection. The schools are graded from A-C depending on the performance of students.

At Gunotsav 2011, CM Narendra Modi vis-ited primary schools Banaskantha district’s Danta taluka, in north Gujarat. Modi spent time with teachers, and students in Jashwant Gadh and Bhemal villages.

This year, around 8,000 primary schools – one-fourth of all primary schools in the state – will be inspected as part of Gunotsav.

Besides education, schools will be rated on parameters such as cleanliness, water, power, greenery and quality of mid-day meal. The NGO Pratham has been roped in to con-duct a third party audit of the entire Gunotsav 2011.

feature


A photo feature on Narendra Modi’s first day in Gunotsav 2011

leader Speak


“It is Important to Ensure that 100 Out of 100 Students Should Achieve a Minimum Basic Education till class 8th”

everybody wants good schooling, but some are forced by circumstances to give education a miss. Our focus is to enable everyone to become educated irrespective of their circumstances, says Manoj Aggarwal - a Gujarat cadre IAS officer, serving as a State Project director, Sarva Siksha Abhiyan - in an interview with Anand Agarwal of digitalLeArNING.

What are the measures undertaken by the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan to improve education in Gujarat?Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (SSA) is a flagship programme of the Government of India in partnership with Government of Guja-rat. Its mandate is to universalise elementary education. SSA aims to improve the quality of education and place a tab on dropout rates. To fulfil these goals, the SSA has taken steps, such as budget allocation, which is approved by project ap-proval board in the Government of India. The budget provides for things like: teachers salary, teachers grant, civil work, alter-nate schooling, schooling for out of school children to bring

them into educational mainstream, keeping a tab on students, child mapping, school maintenance grant, providing books, uniform and development grant, etc. The project is fully geared to do everything possible for improving the educational and literacy level in the state.

The 8th standard has not been completely included in primary education, what is the target date by which it will be covered in the state?Already 10,000 schools were started last year and it will be completed by next year.

leader Speak


We have introduced a toll-free help-

line last month that works across the

state. If someone finds a child who is

not attending school, they can call this

number

Tell us about the major projects under SSA that are having a big impact?SSA seeks to universalise elementary education and to pro-vide educational opportunities to all sections of society, in-cluding the socially and economically backward classes and girls falling in the latter sub-section. SSA is taking various steps to mainstream all the children, we have already started Shala Praveshotsav campaign, aiming at 100 percent enrol-ment for all villages and urban areas, in which the Honour-able Chief Minister Shri Narendra Modi is also taking very keen interest. Every year more than 3000 officers, ministers and Chairmen of boards and corporations go to villages and participate in this universal enrolment scheme. They ensure that every girl child is enrolled under the Gujarat Kanya Kela-vani karyakaram. This is going on for last eight years and because of that we have achieved enrolment rate of almost 100 percent.

Many critics allege that schemes like SSA are only focussed on quantity; they don’t improve quality. There is a programme called Gunotsav, which aims to improve the quality of education in the state. How the SSA is integrated with the Gunotsav?The Honourable Chief Minister started Gunotsav in 2009. It has two parts. Part one is self-assessment by schools, which has been done in October this year. In the second part, al-most 3000 members, including the Chief Minister, all minis-ters, Chairmen of corporations, all IAS, IFS, IPS and other senior officers, participate in assessing almost 900 schools. The assessment will be made through focus on aspects of teachers’ work, civil work, involvement of village education committees, environment of schools, computer education, daily attendance, educational tools, their interaction with other schools, status of child as far as studiers are con-cerned. Even, this year we are going to do a third-party sur-vey to measure the impact Gunotsav has made. So it is holis-tic in nature and in the long run, it would really help improve the quality.

What are the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools that you are adopting to improve the quality of education?Modern ICT methods are used as much as possible. We have Bhaskaracharya Institute for Space Applications and Geo-Informatics (BISAG) to provide training to teachers. In the schools, we are providing computer-based programmes for computer-aided learning. Already we have 5000 thousand schools where computers have been installed. Another 15000 schools will get the computers this year. We also have suf-ficient staff to take care of hardware, software and training.

What are your views on PPP in the education sector?We are using NGOs in many ways; NGOs are involved in the training the school management committees. This is under the

provisions of Right to Education. They are helping us improve the quality of the education in a big way.

What are the major challenges that you face and what steps are you adopting to tackle these?In our large country, there is multiplicity of everything and this leads to problems. Everybody wants good schooling, but some are forced by circumstances to give education a miss. Our focus is to enable everyone to become educated irrespec-tive of circumstances. Moving from one place to another and having socio-eco disparities affect education. It is important to ensure that 100 percent of the students should achieve a minimum basic education till class 8th.

We try to tackle the dropouts from every angle. For instance, to tackle the problem seasonal migration, or migration due for employment purposes, we urge parents to leave their children behind with a caretaker. We provide the basic help through inputs like meals, etc.

We have introduced a toll-free help-line last month that works across the state. If someone finds a child who is not at-tending school, they can call this number. We try to cover eve-rything, including textbooks and uniforms. We are also think-ing of providing transportation facility to those students who stay far away. Besides putting all efforts to retain students, we are also training teachers, updating the curriculum on the lines of national curriculum and NCERT. So, a holistic approach is being adopted to tackle all the challenges.

As you are talking about encouraging results, so what next have you planned for next 2-3 years?Our task is to make quality education free. We want to create an infrastructure that is so efficient that parents will think ten times before sending their child to private school. According to the Right to Education Act, by 2013 a number of digital facili-ties will have to be provided. We are moving in that direction to provide the entire physical infrastructure including number of schools, computers, playgrounds and whatever is required for good quality education that would be achievable by 2013. Once the infrastructure is completed to a high degree, our fo-cus will shift towards providing the quality, which will be lever-aged through teacher training.

academia speak


educating Gujarat

Dr. Akshai Aggarwal, Vice chancellor, Gujarat Technological University, in conversation with Anand Agarwal shares his vision for making transformations in Gujarat’s educational space

What steps are you taking for realizing this vision of becoming a leader in education?We are making the teaching of technology practice oriented. For example, in engineering we have a final year project, which will be based on things being used in industry. During the summer of this year, after the students have appeared in the 3rd year’s exam, they will have to go to the industry and find a way of doing something in a better way. We are teaching our students to be anchored to the needs of the industry; their training must be rel-evant to the skills and the knowledge that are in demand today.

How wide is the focus of the projects?The focus of the projects is quite wide. For instance, we have a polytechnic in Awa, which is a tribal area. As there are no in-dustries in the area, the students go around in villages and find ways of using technology to bring about an improvement in the quality of life.

Are you also trying to develop new technology products through these student level projects? No, developing new products is not our intention. Our sole focus is helping our students gain practical experience in us-ing technology. At first it seemed like a big problem to send 50000 students to industry. All over the world students go out in summer. How come we are not able to do it? Then I looked up the data, in Gujarat and discovered the fact that there are 2.5 lacs registered SMEs and there are many large industries in the state.

Do students handle the projects in groups? How many students are there?This year I only have 50,000 students in the final year; the num-ber will increase to 100 thousand in two years. Normally engi-neering projects are taken up by a group of 2 or 3 students. We have organized the whole state into 25 sankuls, or com-

academia speak


problems, in the courses and in the lack of involvement of the industry.

So I began by getting the industry as-sociations involved. Last year we started

an exercise for developing a global MBA programme. After considerable amount of

work in June 2011, we were able to finalize the new global MBA programme. Many of our pro-

fessors feel that probably this is the one of the best MBA programmes in the country.

What action are you taking to tackle the problem of capitation fee that some

colleges charge?The highest court in the land has declared capitation fee

to be illegal. But capitation fee is being charged for every course. In most cases, the seats under management quota

are filled through the capitation fee route. Of course it is not being done openly, and its not being reported to income tax authority or any other account. .

The idea that higher education can be delivered solely through the funds of the of beneficiary is a totally wrong.

Please share your plans to grow bigger?We are trying our level best to work here. For example, we are sure that we are going to have many more students this year as compared to the previous years. In fact, our review of masters programme has already led to a rather happy situ-ation, where as many as 20 new patents have been filed on basis of work done by by various groups of students. We have already organised 2 workshops to make our teachers aware of the new system of education. Each workshop was attended by about 150 teachers. So we are preparing the ground for many more patents to be filed, and many new products to be developed. But we are expecting that out of 16,000 projects, which have been undertaken in conjunction with the industry, at least some will lead to the filing of new patents and creation of new products.

munities,. In each community we create, what we call Inno-vation Sankul committee. GTU Innovation Sankul consists of 15-20 industry leaders, 15-20 directors or principal of the colleges. So we have about 500 industry leaders now in every area.

We concentrated on SMEs, as they usually do not have any special development and research cell. And we thought that will be more amenable to our young students trying to develop the new products. There are some 72 GIDC associations, and we have tried to involve each one of them. In fact, a majority of the 25 Sankuls are chaired by GIDC associations.

What role has industry played in shaping the overall curriculum of the courses?When the university was established, for two years there was no VC, it was the government officers who handled the administra-tion. These officers brought in professors from IITs who created the syllabus for every semester. When I came in I detected a few

GTU can easily develop into a fountainhead of research,

technology and entrepreneurship. Gujarat is number one in industrial

development; we want the state to achieve similar success in the field

of education. Our ambition is to make GTU the best university for

studying technology.

We have Got it AllClick on www.digitalLEARNING.in for• Lot of useful resources• Articles that are searchable by month and year and by the author• Daily news updates with option to syndicate through RSS• Upcoming events and important announcements• And to get your copy of Digital Learning magazine

Industry speak


“Gujarat has immense potential to become India’s major IT hub”

Classteacher Learning Systems provides digital solutions to over 700 schools, 1 million students and 25,000 educators across India. Rohit Pande, CEO, Classteacher Learning Systems, shares his insights

Advent of IT is having a seminal impact on Gujarat’s education segment. The state’s literacy rate has increased by more than 10 percent in the last decade. The census data of 2011 released on March 31 shows that Gujarat’s literacy rate has clearly in-creased from 69.1 percent (according to 2001 census) to 79.31 percent (according to 2011 census). While the state is provid-ing the much needed impetus to the K-12 segment, there exists considerable scope for improvement.

According to NASSCOM, with an im-proved infrastructure and education, Gu-jarat will be in a position to drive IT growth in the next decade. Som Mittal, president of the IT industry body, says that while currently only six cities, including Mum-bai, Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad, Banga-lore and Pune, form 90 per cent of total IT industry, newer cities like Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Mysore and Chandigarh will drive growth in the next decade. Gujarat has immense potential to become the next IT hub.

With information technology it is easier to achieve the goal of building a society that is rich, aware and discerning. IT is an enabler of social inclusivity; it can bring information to the masses, edu-

cate them and enable them to enjoy a better quality of life.

Gujarat to leapfrogICT can enable data assessment, data analytics in schools, and this is some-thing that will go a long way in creating the minds that will lead India into the future. • Digital interactive education has

seen tremendous growth in the last two years in the market across both large and small towns.

• We see greater than 100 percentgrowth in market for assessments, as well as web based learning.

• E-learningisgrowingbothasasup-port tool for existing educational insti-tutions as well as for delivery of high quality solutions for the end user.

• Digital education has crept into ourclassrooms and has become main-stream in big and small towns.

• Ithelpsinengagingstudentsasstu-dents see and interact with the sub-ject they are studying.

Gujarat is blessed with a dynamic economy. The state government is very serious about improving the education level and has started several programs to achieve full literacy, such as universali-

sation of elementary education, District Primary Education Program and com-pulsory primary education.

As per the figures of 2011 census, the female literacy rate in the last dec-ade has increased by 12.93 percent in Gujarat. Moreover, the male literacy rate was 79.7 percent in 2001 census, this has increased to 87.23 percent in 2011 census. The male literacy rate shows a rise of 7.53 percent in the last decade. This is a notable milestone of progress.

Reaching the Last MileOf the nearly one million public schools in India less than 0.2 percent have ac-cess to IT infrastructure or computer-based education. Setting up a school is a cumbersome process. The costs for building materials, municipality permits, electricity, remuneration for teachers and maintenance is quite high.

Out of approximately 200 million chil-dren in the age group of 6-14 years, only 120 million ever go to school, hence it is important to use IT technology to take education to everyone’s doorstep. As a part of its Vision 2020 plan, the govern-ment is looking to increase the number of school going children by 30 percent.

eIndia 2011 conference will be a unique platform for the various stakeholders who are driving IcT initiatives in the domain of Governance, Healthcare and education.

On eINDIA 2011

Industry speak


One of India’s most developed states, Gujarat, is making many new efforts for taking its educational infrastructure to the next level of advancement. The eIndia 2011 will put the spotlight on Gujarat’s innovative strategy for education.

“State will Need Millions of Skilled Workforce” Edutech offer solutions for skill development centres, libraries, corporate training centres and vocational laboratories. Sajeev Karuthody, Director- Special Projects, Edutech, gives his insight on the transformations in Gujarat’s educational space

By virtue of being the state with highest growth rate in the country, Gujarat is on the cusp of an employment revolution. The state will need millions of skilled work force to take care of its manufactur-ing, IT and services sectors, which are growing at a rapid pace.

A value based education system is the need of the hour, if the state govern-ment’s target for SEE (Socio-Economic-Education) is to be met. The current edu-cation system will need to be improved with design and delivery support mecha-nisms for achieving this objective. ICT (Information and Communication Tech-nology) acts as a multiplier for capac-ity building efforts of educational institu-tions without compromising the quality.

The state government has identified that technology is a key enabler for bring-ing about improvements in education. Hence through various initiatives like ICT @ project- Gujarat is to provide Com-puter Literacy & Computer Aided Educa-tion in Secondary and Higher Secondary Schools. Collaborative participation of in-dustry and the academic community can play a role. More than anything research needs to be done to discover the best ways of implementing ICT.

Gujarat to Leapfrog Educational institutions are facing sig-nificant challenges in taking account of the needs and aspirations of all the stakeholders: between students, teach-ers, faculty, researchers, workers and funding agencies.

The educational environment is evolv-ing rapidly, with shifts in demographics, commerce, technology and politics. ICT is a momentous opportunity for all the teachers and experts in the country to pool their collective wisdom for the ben-efit of every learner. This is the best way of reducing the digital divide.

The policy objective of ICT @ Schools projects of Gujarat aims at uni-versal, equitable, open and free access to state of the art ICT and ICT enabled tools and resources. Identification and procurement of ICT platform and tools is relatively easier.

Following are three areas that will play a key role in the success of any future ICT related initiatives in Gujarat: Plan, People, and Product. • Plan-theICTadoptionneedstobe

developed after taking into consider-ation the realities at institutional and user levels.

• People-Identifyrightstakeholderstoown, adopt and integrate ICT at an institution level

• Product-Usetherightproductsthathave already been tested. The focus should be on having easy to use and effective systems

ICT strategy should have the band-width to reach out to different strata of the society through channels like - mul-timedia, television, mobile, and even Fa-cebook or other social networks.

Reaching the Last MileEducation on Wheels is a unique pro-gramme where the ICT based schools arrive at the student’s doorstep. The in-novative program is successful in pro-viding multi-grade teaching to children of different ages and levels. The usage of special methods and techniques makes the learning enjoyable.

For instance, such educational sys-tems use games, storytelling methods, role-plays, flash cards, art and craft activity, educational CD’s and other joy-fulwaysofdeliveringeducation.Useoftools like student response pads, con-tent formats like simulated games and educational movies are also effective.

On eINDIA 2011

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Industry speak


events like the eINdIA are a boost to any state where it has been held, it is a platform for school, administrators and service providers to interact and also educated school about new available technologies and improvements happening in this field.

“ICT can be used for Achieving a Co-scholastic Outcome”IE Education provides low cost IT solutions for setting up Interactive learning centres - Language Labs, Math Lab, other applications and Multimedia Class solutions. Sudarshan Borker, Business Head, IE Education Private Limited shares his insights on school education in Gujarat

The ICT@School Project that Gujarat has implemented, in partnership with NIIT and Educomp Solutions, reaches out to 3600 schools in the state. Similar programs can be extended to other schools. The effectiveness of such partnerships will solely depend on teacher training and their assessment. The success of the program will depend on how the teachers make use of the ICT enabled tools. One has to ensure that teachers do not view this aid as an additional burden.

A simple, easy-to-understand and easy-to-maintain solution has to be provided. Apart from the fact that the hardware must be easy to use, the maintenance issues have to be taken care of promptly. There must be regular updates and improvements of the software should also be encouraged. This can be achieved if teachers are asked to involve themselves in understanding and creating ICT enabled content and making use of the free and huge database of content already available on the web. Children must also be encouraged to contribute.

‘A whole in the wall’ project is a proof of the fact that children in rural areas will be as quick in understanding technology and exploring knowledge database if they are provided with the right tools and guidance.

Gujarat to LeapfrogWith CCE implementation, it has become a must for most schools to encourage scholastic, as well as co-scholastic teaching and learning in classrooms. ICT tools can be used extensively in Gu-jarat schools to achieve the co-scholastic outcome by ensuring effective implementation of English Language Lab, Math and Sci-ence Labs, and Multimedia Classrooms. The biggest challenge private schools and Government aided schools face in imple-menting the above solutions is teacher training and costs related to installation and maintenance. The challenge here is to find a cost effective and long-term solution.

Reaching the Last MileProjects like the ‘Hole in the wall’ were very successful in the rural areas because they provided children the learning edge. A con-cept like ‘Schools on Wheel’ is a great tool not only for reach-ing out to the needy, but also to keep them interested in learning and completing their modules. The training of the educators is important. The volunteers/teachers will have to be flexible in their approach and they should be trained with the aim of widening the scope of their teaching.

On eINDIA 2011

Industry speak


An event like eINdIA2011 will showcase the cutting-edge developments in IcT, and emphasise upon the benefits of such technologies for school and higher education. This event will help researchers, educators, policy makers and teachers across India by providing them with an update on the latest initiatives from the leading IcT infrastructure providers. eINdIA2011 will be a golden opportunity for witnessing latest innovative solutions from within the Indian IcT industry and beyond.

“ICT Enabled Education-Makes Education Valuable in Gujarat” InOpen Technologies offers products and services to private schools, municipal schools and the state board and government schools. Rupesh Kumar Shah, CEO and Co-Founder, InOpen Technologies, SINE, IIT Bombay sheds light on the Gujarat experience…

Astute governmental policies and the ef-ficient mapping of resources have helped in bringing out phenomenal transforma-tions. The policies support the endeavour for rapid expansion and growth of knowl-edge based economy. Gujarat has suc-cessfully attracted investors due to its un-interrupted power supply, low cost of real estate and investor friendly policies, which has also created a plethora of direct and indirect jobs.

With GIL and GESIA backing the IT infrastructure, the goal of effective de-livery of ICTs comes into play. Some of the enabling policies are Promoting KPO based industries, enhancing sup-ply of skilled workforce, simplification of labour Laws and investor facilitation. This is so unlike the complex proce-dures that one faces in other states to set up a company. The digital content for education, ICT literacy and com-petency enhancement, and the ICT based teaching methods that are run-ning across the state are enhancing

the scope of education. Gujarat is the emerging educational destination.

Gujarat to Leapfrog The focus of the government of Gujarat has now turned towards investing in quality ed-ucation. The state can do the following to leapfrog and lead adoption of ICT in education:• Optimise the investment by using

the same infrastructure for multiple purposes. For example, the com-puter lab of school can be used as training centre for parents so that education continues beyond school.

• Use FOSS applications. Even if itmay be a bigger challenge to alter the operating system, we can focus on using free applications. This in-cludes educational games such as GComrpis, Tux Maths, productivity tools such as office tools, and pro-gramming language like Scratch.

• Provide content for school andhigher education in local language.

Reaching the Last Mile To reach out to all students and mini-mise dropouts three factors have to be taken into account:

Keep the cost of sustained ac-cess low - Software licenses have to be renewed and there has to be adequate hardware support. By using free and open source applications actively the total cost of implementation can be lowered.

Do not reinvent the wheel-We need to focus on sustaining the initiatives al-ready in place.

Understand the user needs- Edu-cational needs of society have to be studied so that the technology useful for everyone can be developed. Value add-ed services provided along with regular education will ensure sustained interest.

Make positive use of the social pressure- It is important to create a positive social awareness to maximise the reach of such initiatives. Local role models can be roped in. They can be used to take care of the kiosks/mobile labs as well.

On eINDIA 2011

Industry speak


eINdIA 2011 is designed to highlight the myriad initiatives that the government has undertaken for improving literacy levels in Gujarat. This event will prove that when it comes to education, Gujarat is far ahead of other states in the country. The coming together of academicians, educators, government officials and the corporate on a single platform will definitely lead to solutions that foster an inclusive growth in education sector.

‘Schools on Wheel’ will go a Long Way in Addressing the Digital DivideMexus Education, a Bilakhia Group enterprise, has been promoting learning through technology based platforms like multimedia DVDs, motion films and interactive online tools. Anil Goyal, Director, Mexus Education, shares his views on education in Gujarat

The academic foundations of the state can only be strengthened by an all-round development in education. The develop-ment has to be right from the primary stage to the higher stages of education. The attempt to branch-out from conven-tional mainstream areas by setting up nationally recognized Business School, Fashion Technology Institute, Entrepre-neurship Development Institute has ac-tually made education more relevant to the citizens.

Initiatives have also been taken at school-level education, to ensure that students step into these academic pur-suits with right orientation and mindsets. Efforts like School on Wheels, Kanya Kelavani, and the partnering with NGOs, are designed to make children bet-ter skilled, so that they may fit into the changing economy and tap emerging opportunities in the state.

Gujarat to Leapfrog The opportunities in Educational ICT abounds. These shortcomings are in-creasingly acknowledged and accepted by the policy makers, as well as school administrators. In this decade, there is a strong need to use technology. Only technology can make education more relevant to current dynamics of econo-my. This easiest and most convenient way of addressing this pulsating need is by furthering a teaching-learning pro-cess through fusion with ICT. Indian Edu-cation is poised to incorporate audio-visual learning, collaborative learning and knowledge sharing elements. ICT is imperative to set a framework for these initiatives.

Reaching the Last Mile For bringing education to the rural mass-es, we need to develop a model of edu-

cation that is relevant to them. This will engage rural masses and ensure that they stay with the system, and thereby dropouts will be minimized. • Application-orientation specific to

their skill sets that can improve the chances of getting proper employ-ment will generate interest.

• Settinguparobusttechnologysup-port which is not only easy to use, but also inexpensive and less de-pendent on existing infrastructure and facilities.

• Ensuring that the system attractsa large number of students so that the economic viability of the model is maintained.

Initiatives like ‘Schools on Wheel’ would go a long way in addressing the digital divide, as it reaches out to stu-dents regardless of infrastructure, as well as the basic facilities.

On eINDIA 2011

Industry speak


We have been actively participating in your eINdIA events since 2009. We feel that eINdIA is a wonderful platform for enhancing knowledge, networking with companies, and gaining insights into the challenges faced by organizations in the field of education

“Out-of-class Activities should be Conducted Regularly”Mosaic Network develops innovative tools that are used in educational institutions, government organizations and social agencies. Saurabh Sethi, Vice President, Mosaic Network (India) Pvt. Ltd. shares his views on transforming education…

IT has made it possible for us to bring quality education to India’s remote areas. The rural areas and the smaller towns can enjoy the same quality of education as the developed cities.

Last two decades have seen major turnaround in the way technology is used in education – we have systems like digital boards, eLearning, and mobile learning. IT is helping educational bodies by enabling micro management, any time access to in-formation, quick and proper assessments and evaluation of education. IT has trans-formed education into a process that is learner-centric, engaging, attention grab-bing, cost effective and reachable. The guru is now the IT empowered guide. Hav-ing said all that, it must also be accepted that IT has its limitations, which the innova-tors must address.

Gujarat to LeapfrogDigital education has seen tremendous growth in the past 4-5 years. I strongly feel that this will continue to grow at high-er rates in coming years. Only 10 percent of over 100,000 educational institutions are technology enabled and out of these only 12-15 percent have technological penetration in their classrooms. A market

this big cannot be affected by competi-tion and I can’t see any factor that might slow the growth. Right now, I am not even considering the government sector, which has the potential of making the opportu-nity even bigger.

Valuable lessons can be learned from the best practices being implemented around the world, but there is no formula for determining the optimal level of ICT integration in the educational system. Significant challenges that policymak-ers and planners, educators, education administrators, and other stakeholders need to consider include educational policy and planning, infrastructure, lan-guage and content, capacity building, employment and financing.

Reaching the Last MileWe must accept the fact that technology alone cannot help us bridge the knowl-edge and opportunity divide. There are issues related to limited infrastructure, and it is also a fact that many teachers are hesitant when it comes to adopting new technologies. A comprehensive ap-proach to tackle multi-level challenges in implementation as well as delivery has to be followed.

• The digital content access shall bemade available through a very easy to use tool, with minimal features.

• Teachingprocessesmustbestand-ardized to take into account the low skilled teacher/trainer, who needs to follow simple instructions. They must be provided incentives for taking this additional burden.

• Periodic inputs should be providedfor improving the system if the learn-ing level drops.

• Authorities and teachers shouldhave timely access to reports and all kinds of feedback, so that the overall progress being made can be moni-tored.

“Drop-outs” are one of the biggest challenges for any education system. We should keep in mind while develop-ing the learning content that the idea is to supplement the learning. The digital content should not become an addi-tional burden on the students. The de-livery must be engaging and the content should be contextual and theme based. It should adapt to the learners require-ments. Motivational exercises and out-of-class activities should be conducted periodically to break the monotony.

On eINDIA 2011

Industry speak


Gujarat is poised for a big leap into the world of digital learning. An event like eINdIA 2011 becomes very relevant in this context, as it is a platform for discussions on the best ways of infusing IT into the educational curriculum.

“Gujarat Leads in Adopting IT in Education”Next Education, a technology-driven education enterprise, provides ICT-based products in the K-12 segment. Veena Raizada, Director (Academics), Next Education, speaks about infusing IT into education in today’s world...

The educational space is being revolution-ised with new technologies, and Gujarat is at the forefront of this revolution. The traditional chalk and blackboard model is no longer in vogue; we are gravitating to-wards interactive white boards and digital content for imparting education.

According to the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan policy of the Union Government, schools are adopting technology in a big way. Next Education wholeheartedly supports this initiative. The strong IT infrastructure in the state will go a long way in making quality education available to every student.

Gujarat to LeapfrogThe policy initiatives on IT taken by the Government of Gujarat are quite encour-aging. The telecom and the IT sectors in the state are well developed, and the state’s literacy rate is almost 70 percent. The Bhaskaracharya Institute for Space Applications and Geo-Informatics (BIS-AG) has satellite communication facilities with a dedicated bandwidth.

These are good signs. Gujarat can be a leader in adopting IT in education. The IT

network in the state is strong. The transport network is good. Investment in the IT sec-tor is very high. The state is ripe for having a much deeper tryst with digital education.

There are several challenges in the adoption of ICT in the education sector. Among them are low literacy levels, un-willingness to adopt technology, moni-toring and evaluation, lack of guidelines, and institutional fragmentation. Even those deemed literate may not be com-petent enough to receive IT education. Educational standards would need to be raised before citizens can become digi-tally literate.

Steps need to be taken to overcome the unwillingness for adopting new tech-nology, so that the digital literacy levels among students and teachers can be increased. Teachers are wary of technol-ogy. They need to be made aware that IT training will help them rather than pose as a threat to their jobs.

Hardware penetration in schools in quite high, but with no auditing or monitor-ing system in place, there is no way for us to evaluate the effectiveness of this hard-

ware. The most common issue faced by schools is related to identification of quality content, but this issue can be resolved by providing clear guidelines.

There is a need to bring about some harmonisation and co-ordination in the aspects of curriculum, infrastructure, content, policy and implementation. The framework for these things is developed by several bodies at several levels. India also has linguistic diversity and income disparity. The digital divide in the country is so acute that it becomes difficult for policy-makers to frame universal policies to be implemented.

Reaching the Last MileDigital solutions on any media that can be operated through the simplest of technological applications will make the mission possible.

The myriad challenges in the path of digital learning can definitely be over-come through dedicated approach. The concept of “School on Wheels” can suc-ceed with all coming together for running it successfully.

On eINDIA 2011

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Industry speak


eINdIA 2011 will bring together government, civil society, academia, and private sector enterprises across the world. This event will bestow international attention to the successes that Gujarat has achieved in the education space. It will also provide immense exposure to the stalwarts’ active in the education scene. They will be able to gather relevant experience for taking education in Gujarat to a new high.

“Method of Delivery needs to be Structured and Consistent”Pearson Education Services (PES) provides end-to-end customised education solutions in the K-12 segment, with a focus on technological innovations. Meena Ganesh, CEO and MD, Pearson Education Services, sheds light on the subject of transformations in education space in Gujarat

Gujarat is home to five top postgraduate institutes. Usage of IT in education helps further improve the education scene. It will change the face of teaching in terms of how teachers interact with students as well as the quality of content used. Technology will help add a whole new set of learning strategies that were never available before.

The proactive nature of the government has contributed largely to the overall growth and development of Gujarat and the state is now poised for taking development in education to the next level. The state government plays a pivotal role is making education available and accessible to all and it has come up with a range of to meet this goal. The Education policy needs to eliminate fi-nancial, legal and administrative barriers. It is most important to remove all obstacles to compulsory schooling. It should also ensure proper fiscal allocations through training of teachers and elimination of myriad social discriminations.

Gujarat to Leapfrog Gujarat has always been known for its entrepreneurial ways. A similar attitude towards ICT in education would help in taking it a long way forward. Being home to India’s top educational in-stitutions, Gujarat is always been an inspiration to all the other states and any step that this state takes tends to get followed by all the other states.

Introduction of ICT in education will go a long way in making students in India competent enough to compete with their coun-terparts across the world. The biggest challenge is acceptance of usage technology in education and overcoming the apprehen-sion that comes with something new and unfamiliar. Most educa-tors are uncertain of using technology and fail to see its benefits. But such issues can be resolved by training teachers and making them understand how to effectively use ICT.

Reaching the Last Mile Reaching out to students from every cross-section of society is a major challenge. The VSAT technology platform seems to be an ideal model for making education available to all. This platform facilitates live classrooms by enabling two-way audio/video interactions, thus giving students access to the best fac-ulty, irrespective of their location.

While Schools on Wheels is an excellent concept, for educa-tion to be effective, the method of delivery needs to be struc-tured and consistent, and that is one area in which the scheme lags. Only when the instruction is structured, children will be able to grasp what they are being taught and there can be proper monitoring of progress.

On eINDIA 2011

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nominations

ShikshaImplementing Agency: Microsoft Corporation (India) Pvt. Ltd Website: www.microsoft.com/india/msindia

To address the priorities in national edu-cational through focus on three core ar-eas: Innovative Teachers, Innovative Stu-dents and Innovative Schools.

The first phase of Partners in Learning entailed the launch of Project Shiksha, which is targeted towards teachers in government schools. Launched in De-cember 2003 by Bill Gates, Chairman, Microsoft Corporation, this scheme is designed to deliver affordable software solutions, comprehensive training and curriculum leadership for students and teachers in government schools. The lofty aim of the exercise is to ‘Empower the future’.

The curriculum seeks to make it easy for teachers to understand how to inte-grate IT tools in classrooms. Currently, this curriculum is available in six regional languages and includes a lot of self-practice exercises. Entire training is de-livered over 8-12 full day sessions..

At the onset, the project had a target of reaching out to 80,000 teachers by December 2008, a period of five years. The second phase of Partners in Learn-ing, Shiksha Pragati, was launched in April 2011 in India. Shiksha Pragati is a

Innovation Factor• Public private partnership

works directly with Educators,Institutions and Governmentsforfurtheranceofeducation

• Computerbasedlearning(ICT)is promoted across govern-ment schools with emphasisonprovidingsoftwaresolutionsand scholarships to teachersandstudents

• Each teacher designs a digitallessonaround their respectivesubject,which isadirect take-away to be used in the class-roomposttraining.

• Monitoringtheteacherstoen-sureuseofITposttraining.

• Followsa360degreeapproach,whichallowstheteacherstobeintouchwithtrainers.

• Microsofthastrainedover6,77,000governmentschoolteachersacross12states.

• Over 50,000 teachers have integrated technology in their teachingmethodology

• TheseteachershaveimpartedtheirITknowledgetoover32millionstu-dents.

• Tie-upswitheducationalinstitutionsandothergovernmentschoolshaveincreasedthereachofthescheme.Microsofthasalsotiedupwithvariousstate-runDistrictInstitutesforEducationandTraining(DIETs)

• Severalteachershavecreatedtheirownwebsitespost‘Shiksha’trainingandareregularlyparticipatingine-communities,ICTcontestswiththehelpofvariousrelevantwebsites.For instance,therearewebsites likewww.partnersinlearningnetwork.comandwww.learninghub.com.

achievements

logical progression of Microsoft’s Pro-ject Shiksha and is designed to equip schools with a capacity building mech-anism in order to reduce their depend-ence on external agencies for ICT and 21st century teaching-learning skills.

Need for the ProjectProject Shiksha will bring relevant tech-nology to the education sector and help address the problem of huge gap be-

tween the citizen’s expectations and the services that are being provided. We are committed to digitize the classroom envi-ronment and thereby contribute towards economic growth of the country.

project showcase


Eureka.in: Visual Aid for Understanding Science and MathsImplementing Agency: Designmate Website: www.designmate.com

A digital library of Learning Objects for Sci-ence and Mathematics, Eureka.in contains learning resources like text, video, simula-tion, quiz and web-link. The animation in the videos and simulations are done in 3D, which is conducive for providing viewers with an enriching, fulfilling and engaging experience. The digital content comes in two formats Mono (without glasses) and Stereo (with glasses) and caters to students from 6th to 12th grades. The product is already opera-tional in 5000 schools around the world.

Need for the ProjectIt is a well known fact that teachers often find it difficult to explain many crucial concepts in science and mathematics to their young stu-dents. Hence Design-mate decided to come up with teaching material in visual format so that the students can actually make visual contact with the scientific and mathemati-cal ideas and thereby achieve better under-standing. One thing is for sure – the time when a teacher did all the talking and the students sat as passive listeners is passé. Today teachers and students can developer better bonding through digital teaching ma-terials.

LocalisationTranslating the entire content into regional languages around the world and then map-ping the same according to the respective curriculums. To overcome the same Design-mate started entering different countries by partnering with big local companies in differ-ent countries operating in the field of educa-tion and started translating and mapping the content with partner companies help, assis-tance and guidance.

PiracyThe content can be safeguarded from get-

Innovative Factor• Immersive3Dexperience• VirtualLabs• Learningresources• Devicecompatibility• Localizedcontent• ComprehensiveK12library• Extensivevisualizationanddetailing• AbilitytorenderintoHDstereovision

achievementsFirst3DstereoscopiceducationalsoftwareintheworldManthanAwardfore-education2006WorldSummitAward2007WorldDidacAward2008

ting pirated, by building a robust encryp-tion after years of research.

Global reach To treat this issue Design-mate has been attending educational exhibitions across the Globe and have partnered with big players in the field of education.

Compatibility The content is made compatible with vari-ous devices across the world. To cater to this issue Design-mate started procuring various SDKs of devices and today after years of research and development over it the content is compatible with most of the contemporary devices.

nominations

project showcase


Shodhganga : A National Repository of ETDImplementing Agency: INFLIBNET Centre Website: http://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in

All universities in India are expected to join the National Repository of Electronic Theses Dissertations (ETD) after UGC is-sues a gazette notification in this regard. Universities are signing MoU with the INFLIBNET Centre to join Shodhganga project. “Shodhganga” is the name of the national digital repository of Indian Elec-tronic Theses and Dissertations.

Basically the universities are giving a commitment for allowing digitisation of their old and new theses in the repository.

The universities that sign MoU with the INFLIBNET Centre are given incentives in terms of funds for digitisation of old the-ses as well as for setting up of ETD Labs. Besides, universities also get access to an anti-plagiarism software tool that detects plagiarism and thereby helps in improving quality of the theses. The project is so use-ful that it will undoubtedly motivate univer-sities to support the digitisation of theses.

The project will grow as more and more theses get submitted and the platform is enhanced to provide better search and discovery experience.

Need for the ProjectAs long as theses and dissertations are not digitized, there is bound to be issues like duplication or even plagiarism. This is wastage of real talent and resources. The UGC Notification (Minimum Stand-ards & Procedure for Award of M.Phil. / Ph.D Degree, Regulation, 2009) dated

Innovation Factors• Shodhganga@INFLIBNETaimstoencourageandsupportopenaccess

topublically-fundedresearch.• Itisanationalproject,whichmakestheresearchresultavailableonline

forpublicaccess,bypublishingthesesinopenaccessformat,basedonUGCmandateviagazettenotification

• FirstNationalRepositoryofThesesandDissertationforallIndianUni-versities(About525universities).

• UGCsNationalSchemefordigitisationofbackvolumesofthesesforalluniversities.

• Well receivedbyacademiccommunityand inayear,43universitieshavecomeforwardinayeartosigntheMoUandjointheproject.

• Universities started signing MoU with INFLIBNET forjoiningtheproject;voluntarycontributedsoftcopiesoftheseshavecrossed2400asondateanditisgrowing.

• Short-listedforManthanDigitalInclusionAwardandthefinalprocessisgoingon.

• Thoughthereisnomandateforprivateuniversitiestojointheproject,suchuniversitiescameforwardtosigntheMoUandjoinShodhgangavoluntarily.

achievements

1st June 2009 mandates submission of electronic version of theses and disser-tations by the researchers in universities with the aim of facilitating open access to Indian theses and dissertation to the aca-demic community world-wide.

Online availability of electronic theses through centrally-maintained digital re-positories will not only ensure easy ac-cess and archiving of Indian doctoral the-ses, it will also help in raising the standard and quality of the research.

nominations

e-INCLUSIVESTEERING

ECONOMY

Co-organisersorganisers

www.einDia.net.in

14-16 December, 2011 Mahatma Mandir, gandhinagar, gujarat

Chief guest

NareNdra ModiHon’ble Chief Ministergovernment of gujarat

project showcase


Implementation of IT at Gujarat Technological UniversityImplementing Agency: Gujarat Technological UniversityWebsite: www.www.gtu.ac.in

The Gujarat Technological University (GTU) was setup by the state in 2007 to regulate the affiliation, examination and curriculum development in diverse areas of professional education. To achieve the goal of bringing new digital technology to education, GTU is working on the lines of Industry Define Project (IDP), Faculty De-velopment Project (FDP) and User Define Project (UDP).

Exam paper delivery system at GTU is now paperless. Security is through encryption /decryption technique having three layer password protections, out of which one password is delivered before half an hour of the examination through dedicated mobile SMS service.

Need for the Project• To help students develop the knowl-

edge of subjects like science, engi-neering, technology, management, environment, etc.

• To create institutes and centers of ex-cellence for imparting state-of-the-art

achievements• ICTEnabledUniversityAwardfor

e-learning and Manthan AwardSouth Asia for conducting On-lineEntrancetestforfirsttimeinanystateintheyear-2009.

• GTU is honoured with GESIAAward for best IT practicinguniversityin2011.

• OnApril 14,2011,GTUwon thebest juryAwardunder incate-goryofBestInterfacebetweenAcademia – Industry at theWorld Education Summit 2011,New Delhi for its GTU Innova-tionCouncilproject.

• GTU bags the award for ICTenabledUniversityof theYearinEIndia2009.

• Universityhasstartedfunction-ingintheyear2008withengi-neeringandpharmacy institu-tions (219 approx.) and grownupto500plusinstitutionsim-partingeducationinthefieldofengineering, pharmacy, man-agement, computer scienceandHotelManagement.

Innovation Factor• GTUhas initiatedencryptedexaminationpapersoncompactdiskfirst

timeinthestateandusedmobileSMStechniquetodecryptexamina-tionpapers.

• Automationofpre-examactivitieslikeexamformgenerationandreceipt,hallticketgenerationandstudentexambarcodeisinitiated.ThishasbeenachievedwithproperimplementationofInformationTechnology.

• GTUhasdevelopeditsownITbasedbar-codedautomatedsystemforallkindsoftasksrelatedtotheconductionofexaminations.

• GTU’sexaminationresultsaredeclaredonitsweb-siteonly.• Toimprovetheteachinglearningprocesses,GTUhastakenseveralICT

Initiatives:thereisuseofWebExforremoteteachingofVLSIDesignandEmbeddedComputingcoursesthroughexpertsfromallovertheworld.

• GTU Wikis (“using collective intelligence for improving Learning Out-comes”) are intended to serve teachers of GTU consortium colleges(PPPcolleges)

• Ata fewcollegesGTUhasprovided roomswith 12-15computerscon-nectedtoacentralserver,onwhichtheentirevideocourse-setof IITMumbaiismounted.

education, training and research. • To create capabilities for develop-

ment of knowledge, skill and compe-tency at various levels.

• To establish close linkage with indus-try for making teaching, training and research relevant to the needs of the industry at various levels.

nominations

Documents

digitalLEARNING-Dec-2011-[46]-Gujarat Bringing Education through Innovation