As most Indians know The ‘EDUSAT ‘ or The
Education Satellite was launched by Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO)
on 20th Sept. The main purpose of this is to provide education to all people
primarily children from remote areas of the country who cannot go to schools
or colleges. The classes would be conducted by various State Education
Boards, NCERT, CBSE, Universities etc in a studio environment using power
point presentations as well as the common black board. There could be
interactive as well as non interactive sessions offered. (The actual figures
I don’t remember well but I think there could be as many as 50,000
interactive terminals (educational institutions) within a couple of years).
As mentioned the classes would be conducted in a studio
environment eliminating the need for a large number of competent, qualified
teachers and televised to the entire nation. (Perhaps those teachers would
get a celebrity status in the education field in years to come)
These classes would be beamed to pre-destined areas using
the EDUSAT similar to regional TV programs on ' Doordarshan'. It will be in
the form of TV programs Students attending the classes will be able to ask
questions to the teachers conducting classes through SMS, email or other
mode of communication, something similar to a TV talk show. To enable this,
schools/colleges should have an interactive receiving terminal which is
currently being supplied free by ISRO to selected schools/colleges as the
whole program is at an experimental stage. In future schools and colleges
will have to purchase this, the cost is around Rs.3000/- I suppose.
In addition these classes would be recorded on a CD and
converted into a computer file and made available on the net without the
interactive session. They will be available from the archives at any later
date in the future.
In a nutshell this is what the Government is trying to
achieve in the education field using space technology. Ironically this
effort of the Government was delayed by US sanctions which prevented India
from purchasing the cryogenic engines necessary for our rockets, from the
Russians.
The wider picture is that, this will give a thrust to
distance education. Education will be available at a fraction of its cost to
a large number of students i.e. higher education A large number of students
can be educated by a very few extremely efficient teachers who can reach
them from the studios located in the universities or education boards.
Education can be taken to the students rather than students walking long
distances to schools as in the case of rural India. Students can receive
education at their own pace and at their own convenience especially those
who are employed. THIS WILL ALSO GIVE A THRUST TO HOMESCHOOLING I SUPPOSE.
This technology can be used to eliminate illiteracy in
other parts of the globe especially countries in Africa & South America.
Already there are talks about providing education to neighbouring countries
like Bangladesh, Sri Lanka., Afghanistan etc. using the EDUSAT.
The satellite is scheduled to start beaming programs
within a few weeks from now. This is going to revolutionize education in the
country .It would be necessary to have proper infrastructure such as
communication facilities, power etc. in remote areas for this to work. Power
can be supplied using solar power. Already a ‘Janatha ‘ (common man/people)
computer is being developed so the impoverished multitudes can have access
to information technology at low cost.
The next on the agenda of ISRO is to provide medical
treatment using similar strategy.
Article by Alexis Papali, who doesn't
guarantee all his figures are exactly right!
