Annotated Bibliography: ICT Use in Primary and Secondary Schools, India

Annotated Bibliography: ICT Use In Primary And Secondary Schools, India

By Mark Kinnersley

Websites

1. (accessed 9th February 2005)

An analysis of the Gramdoot projects which covers the entire District of Jaipur in Rajasthan and provides Broad Band Services to 400+ Gram Panchayats. A kiosk equipped with a computer, printer, webcamera and two fibres used for LAN and CATV services are managed by a computer literate villager. The objective of the project is to empower girls and women in rural India, offering education from a primary level using resources such as the internet. The project is a revolutionary concept in that it seeks to use ICT and provide Broadband services to the villagers at affordable cost so that previously marginalised girls can gain access to education.

1. (accessed 13th February 2005)

A review by Dr Rai of the partnership including the Central Institute of Education Technology (CIET), bringing Information Technology (IT) into the Indian education system. PCs and the internet, video and radio will be introduced into secondary education. Teachers in the target schools throughout India will be trained in communication with students, system instruction, management of resources and innovative teaching e.g. TV and video learning. The Central Board of Secondary Education in Delhi is responsible for ensuring that the major concern of a lack of teacher commitment and technology awareness is met so implementation is of a high standard.

1. (accessed 12th February 2005)

An evaluation of the Butterflies Broadcasting Children Project, which was set up in March 2000 to enable poor and impoverished children in New Delhi to raise awareness of their needs and gain education. The children were taught in team work, accuracy of communication, time management and the use of mini-discs in broadcasting a radio programme. These children were between the ages of 7 and 18, however due to their poverty were missing out on any form of education. The aim of getting the children national airtime is still being pursued with the hope of raising awareness to their needs so that they can gain an education.

1. (accessed 5th February 2005)

UNICEF’s Hyderabad field office, in cooperation with the State Governments of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka has initiated the Sisu Samrakshak project. With the support of CoOptions Technologies, ICTs are used for early childhood development. The project provides information on the standard of job training and frontline support for teachers in primary and secondary education. A link has been assumed between education and the standard of living. Therefore the aim of the project is to improve the standard of education throughout the relevant States using ICTs, with the belief that this will improve the quality of life and technology access in this region of India.

1. (accessed 27th January 2005)

The site provides details of the ‘Crystal Comprehensive Programme for building eLearning Institutions’, initially set up for the three year period from 2002 to 2005 within India. The objectives of the scheme were to set up an eLearning competence centre, set up a service network for tutors and teachers in schools and to ensure that all training products and organisational strategies can be re-used for BMZ funded projects. It is then hoped that the teacher’s communication and presentation skills as well as the experience and basic understanding of computer technology can be passed on for the benefit of school children in India and Uganda.

1. (accessed 15th February 2005)

Review of a programme on eradication of poverty entitled ‘Empowering the Underprivileged through the use of ICTs’ set up in Babul-ulm-Madarasa located in a Muslim ghetto in Northern Delhi. This is an extreme example where over 60% of girls drop out of education and are forced to remain in the house for the entirety of their lives unless given the permission of a man. A centre has been set up offering counselling, multi-media training and learning opportunities on computers to compensate for missed primary and secondary education, where empowering girls to return to school is not a feasible option.

1. (accessed 13th February 2005)

A review of the Community Information Centres (CIC) project, which has been jointly implemented in the eight North-Eastern states of India by. The objective of the project is to bridge the digital divide between mainstream India and the traditionally backward North-Eastern States through ICT. Computer education and training in email and internet access is offered to many of the local primary and secondary school children to improve their access to resources. Online syllabus access, teaching and examination is also offered to students bringing similar educational opportunities in rural India to those offered urban areas.

1. (accessed 26th January 2005)

This site provides information on the Deccan Development Society (DDS). This NGO works in the Medak district of Andhra Pradesh with 100 Dalit women’s groups (sangams) having a total membership of nearly 4000 women in 75 villages. They have set up a community radio station in Machnoor village which seeks to serve local information needs of the region including gender justice. Many women across rural India are deprived the opportunity to complete primary and secondary education. DDS radio informs young girls of how and where they can get educated, as well as providing teaching via the radio in order to compensate for what they are missing out on.

1. (accessed 17th February 2005)

The Digital Opportunity Channel offers brief overviews of ICT initiatives. This reference gives an example of a report on President A.P.S. Abul Kalam’s desire for tele-education and ICT to play a pivotal role in Indian education. Through the EDUSAT scheme it is hoped that existing terrestrial broadband, wireless and optical communication networks can be made use of to offer a fully connected multi-media learning environment. The aim is to make education appealing and innovative, but it appears inevitable that quality of service is likely to diminish away from the urban centres due to implementation limitations such as infrastructure, training opportunities and cost.

1. (accessed 13th February 2005)

This paper analysis the ‘Vidya’ computer programme run by Aptech (since 1999), offering IT training. Students are taught computer and internet skills in a way that will benefit their schooling, with Junior and more advanced Vidya training on offer. 350,000 students have been trained in India in the many centres that are free for students to visit from 7am to 8pm 7 days a week. The 6 module course takes 48 hours to complete at a cost of $39, while three year courses are being offered for poor students in centres like the Thane, Mumbai centre. The challenge remains to educate students in computing skills that will enhance their primary and secondary education.

1. (accessed 22nd January 2005)

Offering an overview of the Development of Humane Action Foundation (DHAN), initiated in 1997 to fight against poverty in South India. The foundation works alongside academic institutions to allow computer education in schools and to set up 100 internet kiosks in the Madurai district. Aims of the project include providing computer education in schools at low cost as well as providing email and internet browsing facilities. Such use of ICT is helping to assist teachers in providing material for students and empower girls in education establishments.

1. (accessed 12th February 2005)

The site offers an analysis of Drishtee which was created in late 2000, to introduce technology to rural India. Drishtee’s aim was to facilitate the use of technology for transactions and communication on a localised intranet system between villages and a district centre. Computers were used as the machinery of education with cyber access being used to allow students and teachers to gain access to resources and syllabus material. The Drishtee initiative has shown great success in overall community empowerment through technology, but has not been especially innovative in its support of rural education.

1. (accessed 17th February 2005)

An analysis is offered of the Department of Information Technology (DIT) and its framework for enabling information and service kiosks in Indian villages. These integrated ‘Common Service Centres’ (CSCs) offer both private and government services, in education and other rural service requirements. The system aims to deliver activities to an IT-enabled environment using an easily replicated system, but at face level the system appears too broad to have created any sufficient improvement to education in rural India.

1. (accessed 19th January 2005)

An analysis of the ‘ICT in Schools’ government initiative in India. The aim of the initiative is to provide equal opportunities to school students in rural areas and in cities. This is achieved by promoting the usage of ICT, especially in Higher Secondary and Secondary education Schools in rural areas. Teaching and learning ICT skills can be used to enrich the existing curriculum, while promoting critical and analytical skills amongst students. As a result ICT is used to provide a better education system in the target regions throughout India.

1. (accessed 17th February 2005)

This article offers a critical analysis of the internet and telecommunications in India and China, making comparisons between the approaches taken in the 2 countries. Being the second most populated country in the world, the internet really is put to the test in Indian development, but key restrictions are noted. Only 200,000 PCs are available in education and internet coverage in secondary education is very poor, failing to take off at a substantial rate over the last 5 years. Illiteracy, a lack of English speaking students and a 39% enrolment rate in secondary schools also make using the internet and PCs very difficult when they mostly operate in English text.

1. (accessed 13th February 2005)

An evaluation of the Nabanna Information Network conceived by a Kolkatta based NGO for the rural women of West Bengal. The network aims to empower women through ICTs, increasing their education opportunities and therefore their employability following their completion of primary and secondary school. They have also been taught vocational skills relating to word processing and desktop publishing applications, giving them the future employment opportunities that they are often denied in rural India. As a result the project was awarded the Gender and ICTs award coinciding with the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) by the Global

Knowledge Partnership (GKP).

This site offers an analysis of the transformation of Indian education through the net and IT. The government National Task Force in India have set a target of reaching 100% literacy in all secondary schools by 2014. As a result India has continued to promote web-learning through the government and non governmental organisations (NGOs) with a growing number of online learning opportunities on offer through the likes of IGNOU. Many localised projects are also discussed including the Maharastra Industrial and Technical Consultancy Service (MITCOM) with learning opportunities in Marathi for over 7,500 students.

1. (accessed 15th February 2005)

Gyandoot offers a critical evaluation of the Rajiv Gandhi Prathmik Shiksha Mission which was launched in 1994. The mission aims to empower Dhar, which is one of the educationally backward districts of Madhya Pradesh. The objectives were to deliver access to education facilities, enrolment of children, retention of learners and a better quality of education. Alternative schooling was also offered for the tribal children, where social patterns did not allow for conventional schooling at the conventional times of day as offered throughout the majority of India. The mission demonstrates great strength in facilitating education through ICT with the needs of the children in mind.

An evaluation of the Bridges to the Future Initiative (BFI), which aims to increase access to education for the 59 million school aged children in India, currently not in schools. BFI plans to provide a cost-effective tool to improve teaching standards and education within all poorly serviced communities. The initiative will originally be situated under the patronage of the state educational agencies in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, as part of the support programme for the likes of UNESCO and UNICEF. In all this will help to target 30,000 teachers and 6 million students throughout the country.

1. (accessed 27th January 2005)

This site offers an overview of the Rajiv Gandhi Mission, which has seen efforts from the Madhya Pradesh Government to universalise primary education by the year 2002. The Government set out with the principals that any community with 25 learners in a tribal area and 40 learners in a non-tribal area who did not have a school within one kilometre, had a right to demand and get one within 90 days. The use of ICT in implementing these primary schools involved newspapers, leaflets and mobile phones and transport for communication between relevant groups.

1. (accessed 27th January 2005)

Provides details of the Chennai based M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) and its Information Village Research Project (IVRP) set up in 10 villages around Pondicherry. The project offers support and services in education where Internet Radio and Educational Institutions based Community Radio is used by local primary and secondary schools as learning resources. Educational CDs have also been deployed in the project sites as well as software for running various educational applications in the local language of Tamil. This project has been ongoing since 1998, with success in a range of uses for ICT of which education is included.

1. (accessed 12th February 2005)

This site analyses the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) within the Government of India and support in improving school education through the National Institute of Education (NIE). The Department of Computer Education and Technological Aids (DCETA) within the NIE has worked to develop computer education and modern technology as a means of improving Indian education through ICTs. The fully established ‘Learning with Computers’ scheme operates at three levels and constantly looks to improve learning resources and the syllabus throughout Indian schools.

The site gives a review of the launch of the world’s first education satellite, which was launched by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to target India’s rural communities. India currently needs around 10,000 new schools to meet its educational targets and the INSAT initiative has been seen as the only way to achieve this target and reach marginalised students. The planned virtual classrooms can then be used to cater for students of all ages up to the higher education level.

1. (accessed 10th February 2005)

This site offers an evaluation of the Million Book Digital Library Project, which was set up by the National Science Foundation in the USA. The aim of the project was to provide one million free-to-read books on the internet by 2005. The result is hoped to provide access to a huge and unique resource for school children and teachers in poor less developed countries such as India. It is also hoped that at least 10,000 books among the million, will be accessible in more than one language so that Hindi and Tamil transcripts are also available to India schools.

1. (accessed 17th February 2005)

This site offers a critical review of Picopeta’s Chhatttisgarh Project which aimed to take forward and develop a way of introducing technology to school education in India while overcoming the usual problems of high cost and computer training. The project is successful in that it trained teachers first so that they could manage the use of technology relevant to the syllabus. Programmes were then designed to teach children how to use Simputers, which are handheld computers that are programmed through a main station that the teachers control. Proactive learning proved very successful for the students, while the Simputers were accessible for other local students after school hours therefore allowing efficient use of the resource.

Books and Journals

1. Press, L. et al., (1998) On The Internet, November/December, pp 35-37

This article provides an overview of the Indian ‘Millennium System’ which created a partnership between the government and the private sector. Computers and increased internet coverage were offered to schools, while one completely new school was built with resources and a high level of technological equipment. The aim of this was to increase the link between computer skills in secondary education and those going on to study at higher education in establishments such as the new IIIT University. The system neglects the needs of the students and teachers, while being dominated by the private sector and a drive for economic growth in India’s high tech industries.

1. Rudolph, S. and Rudolph, L. (1972) Education and politics in India. Oxford University Press. Delhi.

This text offers an insight into the Indian education system and the politics within which it operates. Indian education post 1947 and the country’s independence is still market by the private, upper class education system introduced under British colonial rule. There is a need for teaching and technical education to be socially mobile throughout society in order to reach the marginalised groups ad offer education to all. Information communication technologies are however, clearly missing from India’s education system into the early 1970s, especially away from the upper class institutes.