Col Balwant Singh (Retd)
A country can make a steady move on the path of progress to ensure around prosperity of its citizens only through the exploitation of the basic tool of education. India with a largest growing economy needs its more and more well educated people’s constructive participation in the economic development to accelerate its progressive pace and achieve the objective of becoming a developed Nation akin to the UK, USA and other European counties like Russian federation etc. In today’s era of digitalization, there exists the opportunities to reach out to underprivileged children staying in rural areas to provide them quality education through premier educational institutions by creating digital online class rooms in the country side in the far flung remote areas. Children staying in remote rural areas have no access to the premier Government aided institutions/Schools, Schools run by the autonomous educational societies/trusts or by any Non-Government Organization providing quality education to the children in urban/ semi urban areas of the country. These Institutions/ schools are well structured in terms of Educational infrastructure, digital technology, curriculum and the employment of well qualified faculty to impart education. These leading educational institutions are privileged to implement the provisions enshrined in the National New education policy 2020 with the proliferation of digital technology country wide. Children studying in underdeveloped rural areas are deprived of such quality education and lag much behind to compete in the central or the state level competitions with their peers studying in these well-established educational institutions.
To encourage uniformity in the country’s educational system and equal participation of the countrymen especially the youth in holistic development of the country, there is a need to bring all children educationally at par country wide, irrespective of their inhabitation. The digital technology can play a major role to achieve the objective. Underprivileged children staying in these inaccessible rural areas can be provided the same educational facilities as available to privileged class of students through the establishment of digital online class rooms in rural areas. The Government is moving ahead with Viksit Bharat mission 2047 to celebrate 100 years of freedom. A strong will power will definitely turn this great vision into reality by exploiting the fullest potential of our people by reaching out to the last of the underprivileged student to impart him the quality education through digital online means.
There are well established Government run educational institutions and numerous chains of Schools/higher education institutions accomplished by the autonomous educational societies in the country in the urban areas especially in the metro cities. Connecting these educational institutions/ Schools through the digital means to the Schools situated in the remote areas in the country side will result in the extension of state-of-the art educational facilities upto far flung remote areas. Government must frame rules on the lines of corporate social responsibilities for all the autonomous educational societies running in the country to educationally adopt these remotely located rural villages and set up there state of the art digital Online schools as an integral part of on their institutions/Chains of Schools.
These online rural area schools connected digitally to their well-established educational institutions/Schools with a provision of real time live streaming of the physical classes to these online digital class rooms situated in far flung rural areas will ensure imparting of quality education to the underprivileged children living in rural areas and bring them at par to a great extent with their peers staying in urban areas. These online schools must form an important part of those leading educational institutions to which they are connected digitally and must form a benchmark to ascertain their rating of efficient functionig.
Apart from creating local academic and sports infrastructure in these online schools, periodic educational visits of these children be undertaken to the Institutions to which they are digitally affiliated to attend sports and other extra curricular activities and feel part of the institution. Such educational visits of these children will also provide them with the opportunities to physically see the educational institution, existing educational infrastructure and actual on ground functioning of their class rooms. To ensure realism, these rural area online schools be governed by the well trained teaching faculty mostly employed from the local area to assist the children to assimilate the online lessons well. The provisions for visual display of digitally recorded educational instructions must also exist for teaching the children to cope up with the situation of non availability of internet at certain intervals. Also the periodic visits by the faculty members from their mother institution (the institution to which these online schools are digitally connected) be undertaken to provide these underprivileged children with the opportunities to physically interact with the teachers and clear their doubts if any. It will help in creating a close teacher pupil bond between teaching faculty and the Students.
The proliferation of digital technology can bring about a revolutionary change in the field of education to enable underprivileged children from the rural areas to join main stream of National education system, receive the best of the education and participate in the development of our country with their full potential and serve the country with best of their capabilities as well educated proud citizens of the country.
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