Diksha, the government’s online learning portal, has registered over 61 crore views since March 24. However, those with no access to the internet are still excluded from quality learning.
Diksha, the government’s online learning portal, has registered over 61 crore views since March 24. However, those with no access to the internet are still excluded from quality learning. So, the government on Sunday announced an extension of its e-learning programme to cover offline mediums. Instead of the existing three channels, the government will be rolling out one channel for each class catering to those not having internet connection.
There is also a big push towards online learning, with the government planning to release 200 more books for e-pathshala portal with QR codes and added functionality to make learning interactive. However, this is not the first initiative to offer teaching via podcasts, TV, and other media. Earlier, initiatives like Gyan Bharti and the Swayam portal have not been able to generate much interest among students.
Manish Sabharwal, chairman, TeamLease Services, believes that the government is still stuck to the first generation of ed-tech. “The world has shifted to third-generation of ed-tech. The government needs to create competition, they need to stop trying to be a service provider, and rather act as a regulator and policymaker which encourages competition,” he said.
Lockdown has certainly made online learning essential and online teaching platforms like Byju’s claim to have increased their user base by about 200%. “We have registered 6 million new users since the lockdown. Session times have increased, and so has engagement” says Divya Gokulnath, co-founder, Byju’s.
Rules, however, have constrained Indian education institutions to take advantage. For instance, the Sunday announcement still does not allow all universities to offer online teaching. The privilege is limited to the top-100 universities, a criterion specified under the UGC Regulations 2018.
While the rules have been in place since 2018, till now, the UGC has only licensed seven universities to offer online courses. The current relaxation will mean the top-100 will not require licensing from the UGC, as the universities can automatically start their courses from May 30.
gIt is a good start, but the government needs to allow much more. Overseas universities have signed up more than 100,000 students over the last 60 days, so there is an appetite for it. The next step would be to allow all universities in India to offer online courses. If they can be a university, they can be online,” says Sabharwal.
India has 993 universities and 38 million university students.
