ELearning A Tool for Education in Rural India

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E-Learning- A Tool for Education in Rural India

• Abhiyendra Kumar
• Master of Tech. Integrated,4th year
• Department of Mathematics
• Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi (India)

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Acknowledgement

• Greatly Thankful to
• The Organizing committee of the conference for
  providing me an opportunity to present my views
  on such a large platform.
• Abu Dhabi Mens college for providing me with a
  scholarship to attend the conference.
• My Father who motivated me to write this paper.

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India Enormous Diverse

• Population 1.0270 billion
• Number of States 28
• Number of Union territories 7
• Land Area 2,973,190 sq. kms
• Population Density 324 persons per square kms
• (2001 Census Registrar General of India)
• (currency conversion 1Indian Rupee0.0227 ,1
  American 44 Indian Rupees)

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India An Economic Giant

• India is marching towards attaining the goal of
  becoming a developed nation by the year 2020.
• GDP Rs. 27,550,340 million at current market
  prices
• The real GDP has grown by 8.1 during 2003-
  2004.
• (Economic Survey GOI 2003 2004 Advanced
  Estimates released by CSO in Feb 2004)

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Indian Economy - World Ranking

• Economy Ranking (millions of American dollars)
  
• 1. United States 10,871,095
• 2. China 6,435,838
• 3. Japan 3,582,515
• 4. India 3,096,239

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India Literacy

• Literacy
• Total 65.38
• Male 75.85
• Female 54.16
• (However age does not show us the real picture.
  The sheer numbers matter. The number of
  illiterate people in India is 355 million)
• (e-Learning comes in here to help )

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India Digital Divide

• 70 of Indian population still lives in Villages
  (Rural Areas),and their primary occupation is
  agriculture
• Information Communication Technology Rural
  India not as fortunate as Urban India
• Digital Divide India(urban, educated, rich)
  (30) vs. Bharat(rural, illitrate, poor) (70)
• The IT Giant, India needs to take IT to the
  masses.

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India Information Technology

• IT Industry in India accounts for more than 3 of
  India's GDP
• The Indian IT industry is amongst the top 10
  industries in the country.
• 203 Fortune-500 companies are customers of Indian
  IT industry

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India Information Technology

• As per NASSCOM estimates, in 2002-2003, the total
  revenues of the Indian IT market were US 6.6
  billion.
• The IT exports were US 9.5 billion.
• America 71
• UK 14
• Rest of Europe 9
• Indias vision is to achieve a domestic and
  global market of US 75 billion in the IT sector
  by 2009.
• (NASSCOM National Association of Software
  Service Companies http//www.nasscom.org/)

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India Telecom Infrastructure

• The number of telephone subscribers in India are
  79.5 million, inching towards the 100 million
  target set by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of
  India in the current year.
• Total fixed lines 43.18 million and 36.3 million
  mobile connections.
• NASSCOM estimates PC volumes at 3.5 million
  today.

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India IT Manpower

• Over 813,000 people are employed in IT Industry,
  which is the second largest IT workforce in the
  world next to the United States.
• As per the NASSCOM - McKinsey report 1999, India
  needs to have at least 2.2 million (i.e. twice
  the current numbers) knowledge workers in IT
  software and services related areas by 2008.

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India Education

• There are more than 380 universities (over 920
  colleges) and 1265 engineering colleges providing
  computer education at the degree/diploma level in
  India.
• The output of trained manpower in IT at the
  degree/diploma level has consistently been
  increasing and has reached to almost 120,000
  annual output during 2002.
• Every year, approximately 19 million students are
  enrolled in high schools and 10 million students
  in pre-graduate degree courses across India.
  Moreover, 2.1 million graduates and 0.3 million
  post-graduates pass out of India's nonengineering
  colleges.

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Presidents Address EDUSAT

• The Honorable President Dr. Abdul Kalam in his
  address (4th August, 2004) to the children of the
  nation said
• Education is the catalyst for change, and
  Information Technology is the major driving force
  and change agent.
• There are three parts to Learning Lecture,
  Laboratory and Library
• He announced the Project EDUSAT in the country.

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Philosophy

• American President John F. Kennedy said If a
  society can not help many who are poor, it can
  not save the few who are rich.
• I would say a technology which can not improve
  the lives or reach the poor, cannot sustain the
  leadership of few who are rich.
• Mahatma Gandhi believed that India could attain
  Independence from British Rule only if the masses
  were involved in the freedom struggle.
• I would like to add here that India can attain
  freedom from poverty and illiteracy only if the
  technology reaches and benefits the masses.

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E-learning Projects in India

• (i) Yuva.com, Bhoomi (www.bhoomi.kar.nic.in) of
  Karnataka
• (ii) Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (www.sksindai.com) of
  Orissa,
• (iii) The Gyandoot Project in Dhar of Madhya
  Pradesh (www.gyandoot.net),
• (iv), Warana Wired Village Project of Maharashtra
  (www.mah.nic.in/warana),
• (v) n-Logue Communications (www.n-logue.com) of
  Tamil Nadu,
• (vi) TARAhaat.com (www.tarahaat.com),
• (vii) CARD, TWINS, FAST (www.ap-it.com) etc of
  Andhra Pradesh, etc.

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E-learning Organizations in India

• Zeus Learning India
• eGurucool
• Netvarsity
• LearningMate
• Aptech Training Limited
• UEC Sail Information Technology Limited
• Magic Software
• Neilsoft Limited
• QAI (India) Limited
• Tata Interactive Systems
• Headsreach
• Excel Soft
• Archisoft Technologies Pvt Limited
• CSLTech
• Braahmam Net Solutions Pvt. Ltd.,
• Top cassettes Ltd.

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Currently Existing Model
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Cont.

• Three Actors in the field of e-learning
• -- The government
• -- Mediators/entrepreneurs/ service
• providers/implementer of the policies
• -- Beneficiaries
• Basic Flow of relation/ coordination among
  these actors.
• -- Govt. cannot do everything
• -- Entrepreneurs implement their programs.
  
• -- service providers look for urban
  projects or high profit business in the
• rural sector, hence the beneficiaries
  become a liability on the govt.
• -- Beneficiaries believe that its the
  social responsibility of the government
• to provide them with these services,
  hence no value for free services in
• their minds.

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Current Infrastructure available

• Stable and quality education system
• Primary Schools, junior high schools, inter
  colleges, post graduate colleges, technical
  colleges, universities and national
  institutions.( This is what the value chain
  refers to)
• But it plays a very passive role in the current
  scenario due to reasons best known to them.
• As the whole network of education is supported
  and regulated by the government this network
  could play a crucial rule in e-learning for the
  rural sector.

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Proposed/New Model

• Govt. continues to support infrastructure.
• Service providers must create business relations
  with beneficiaries by providing quality service.
• Work hand in hand with the Govt.
• Beneficiaries pay a small / token money and
  demand value for their token money.
• The Value Chain becomes the most important player
  in the model.

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Cont.
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Case for Implementation

• I try to put forward how the model can be
  implemented in my home district of Aligarh
• Aligarh is one of the districts of the most
  populated north central state of Uttar Pradesh of
  the Republic of India.
• Famous for the oldest university Aligarh Muslim
  University in India and the lock industry.
• Surrounded by the districts of Gautam Budha
  Nagar, Bulandshahr, Badaun, Etah, Hathras,
  Mathura and the state of Haryana to its south.
• In this small area district administration is
  running 17 colleges with full financial support
  of the state government.
• Each village has either a primary school or a
  Junior high school.

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Cont.

• If we include inter colleges of neighboring
  districts and the state of Haryana , it will be a
  cluster of 40 colleges and more than 100 schools.
• Each college has at least 1000 students.
• Each college has government provided
  telecommunication connectivity.
• Education expanses are meager (Rupees 20/- to
  Rupees 40/- per student )

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Cont.
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Creation of Infrastructure

• E-learning infrastructure primarily consists of
  servers, computers, printers, modems, network
  equipments, internet connectivity
  telecommunication links.
• Telecommunication links are already available for
  using dial up internet connections.
• Private participation for creating computer
  teaching labs.

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Cost of the project

• Calculated using various components as mentioned
  above.
• Hardware suggested is of low configuration to
  limit the expenditure.
• Standard desktop with CD-RW would act as a server
  for internet connectivity.
• Lab of 20 computers.

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Cont.
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Total Cost

• Total cost approximates to Rupees 10,00,000 for
  the first four years and around Rupees 1,30,000
  for every subsequent year.

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Funding

• Part of the expenditure would be met by the
  government initially.
• Computing infrastructure could be set up by
  private service providers
• Govt. may advise banking institutions to extend
  cheap loans to the entrepreneurs/ unemployed and
  highly educated youth for setting up and running
  computer labs in these colleges.
• Contents to be delivered and created at one place
  and only once, they may require revisions/ new
  versions.
• Could be developed by one agency at the state
  level as in a particular state a common language
  is written and understood by most the people.
• The cost in a country like India are marginal and
  can be shared by the beneficiaries without much
  difficulty, as we will see.

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Cont.
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Usage

• Colleges have 6 working days with approx. 8 hours
  of teaching every day.
• In a lab of 20 computers 40 students can work at
  a time , 2 students sharing one computer.
• In a day ( 408) 320 students can be trained in
  the lab for 1 hour each.
• Every student will have the opportunity to work
  and study on a computer for approx. 2 hours in a
  week.
• Total no of hours 40 861920
• Total no of students 1000
• Hours per student 2 approx.

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Secondary advantages

• By having additional staff/ trainers on Sundays
  the illiterate adults of near by villages or the
  students of Junior high school/ primary schools
  can be trained in the same lab as part of the
  government intervention.
• This would lead to eradication of illiteracy
  among the adults and children can get started
  with e-learning at an early age.
• This setup would enforce sustainability of the
  projects for the private service provider who has
  set up the labs.

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Expected Result

• A Dream Comes True
• Multi facet Knowledge Hub in a small Village in
  Rural India

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• Thank You