*Only 23 sites out of total 103 made operational till date
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Apr 14: Students of 103 educational institutions of Jammu and Kashmir have remained deprived of benefits of EDUSAT—a satellite devoted exclusively to long distance learning, as Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) and M/s Huges have failed to meet the deadline agreed to for making the system functional. Moreover, nobody in the Higher Education Department is in a position to specify the time-frame for restoration of facility as only 23 educational institutions have been provided connectivity with the main hub till date.
The EDUSAT facility was made available in 103 institutions—59 in Kashmir valley and 44 in Jammu region several years back in order to provide long distance learning to thousands of students. For this purpose, two hubs—one each in Government College for Women, Gandhi Nagar Jammu and Government College for Women MA Road Srinagar were installed.
Following installation of hubs at these two colleges and Satellite Interactive Terminals in 103 educational institutions comprising Degree Colleges, Higher Secondary Schools, District Institutes of Education and Training, Industrial Training Institutes and Polytechnics, the Higher Education Department of J&K entered into Comprehensive Annual Maintenance Contract (CAMC) with Ms/ Huges.
Till March 2012, the EDUSAT facility remained functional and students of these 103 institutions received optimum benefit of the same. However, between March 2012 and March 2013 only recorded lectures were provided to the students as Higher Education Department failed to revive the CAMC with M/s Huges on certain issues, official sources told EXCELSIOR while disclosing that since March 2013 the EDUCAT facility has remained unavailable to the students.
Finding that use of information technology was imperative for providing quality education to the students particularly in educational institutions situated in far-off places, the then Minister for Education Naeem Akhtar on December 9, 2016 called a meeting of officers and scientists from ISRO and it was agreed that ISRO will make the existing EDUSAT system functional by March 2017 and thereafter it will lay focus on up-gradation of facility with latest technology besides expanding the facility from higher education sector to school education sector.
However, the ISRO has failed to meet the deadline and the same is being attributed to certain technicalities, sources said while disclosing that till date out of 44 Satellite Interactive Terminals in Jammu region only 11 have been made functional which includes 9 Degree Colleges. Similarly, out of 59 Satellite Interactive Terminals in Kashmir valley only 12 could be made functional so far, sources disclosed.
As far as hubs are concerned, sources said, “only hub of Government College for Women Gandhi Nagar Jammu has been made functional as it has been decided that hub at Government College for Women MA Road Srinagar will be taken up only during the up-gradation exercise”, adding “moreover, it has been decided that hub at Gandhi Nagar College will take care of 59 educational institutions of Kashmir valley”.
“It is difficult to specify any time-frame for making all the 103 Satellite Interactive Terminals functional although the teams of ISRO and Ms Huges are on the job”, an officer of the Higher Education Department said on the condition of anonymity.
Moreover, no headway has so far been made towards extension of facility to school education sector, which was also decided in the meeting of December 9, 2016, sources said while disclosing that no step has been initiated for signing of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Department of Education and ISRO.
“Even it has not been decided as to who will look after the maintenance aspect after ISRO makes all the Satellite Interactive Terminals functional as agreed in the meeting of December 9, 2016”, sources said, adding “it is a matter of serious concern that for four years the State Government didn’t pay any attention towards making the EDUSAT system functional and deprived the students of its benefits”.
It is pertinent to mention here that GSAT-3, known as EDUSAT is meant for distant classroom education from school to higher education level. This was the first dedicated “Educational Satellite” that provides the country with satellite based two-way communication to classrooms for delivering educational materials.
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