Industry Speak
“State will Need Millions of Skilled Workforce” Edutech offer solutions for skill development centres, libraries, corporate training centres and vocational laboratories. Sajeev Karuthody, Director- Special Projects, Edutech, gives his insight on the transformations in Gujarat’s educational space By virtue of being the state with highest growth rate in the country, Gujarat is on the cusp of an employment revolution. The state will need millions of skilled work force to take care of its manufacturing, IT and services sectors, which are growing at a rapid pace. A value based education system is the need of the hour, if the state government’s target for SEE (Socio-EconomicEducation) is to be met. The current education system will need to be improved with design and delivery support mechanisms for achieving this objective. ICT (Information and Communication Technology) acts as a multiplier for capacity building efforts of educational institutions without compromising the quality. The state government has identified that technology is a key enabler for bringing about improvements in education. Hence through various initiatives like ICT @ project- Gujarat is to provide Computer Literacy & Computer Aided Education in Secondary and Higher Secondary Schools. Collaborative participation of industry and the academic community can play a role. More than anything research needs to be done to discover the best ways of implementing ICT.
Gujarat to Leapfrog Educational institutions are facing significant challenges in taking account of the needs and aspirations of all the stakeholders: between students, teachers, faculty, researchers, workers and funding agencies. The educational environment is evolving rapidly, with shifts in demographics, commerce, technology and politics. ICT is a momentous opportunity for all the teachers and experts in the country to pool their collective wisdom for the benefit of every learner. This is the best way of reducing the digital divide. The policy objective of ICT @ Schools projects of Gujarat aims at universal, equitable, open and free access to state of the art ICT and ICT enabled tools and resources. Identification and procurement of ICT platform and tools is relatively easier. Following are three areas that will play a key role in the success of any future ICT related initiatives in Gujarat: Plan, People, and Product. • Plan - the ICT adoption needs to be developed after taking into consideration the realities at institutional and user levels.
• People - Identify right stakeholders to own, adopt and integrate ICT at an institution level • Product- Use the right products that have already been tested. The focus should be on having easy to use and effective systems ICT strategy should have the bandwidth to reach out to different strata of the society through channels like - multimedia, television, mobile, and even Facebook or other social networks. Reaching the Last Mile Education on Wheels is a unique programme where the ICT based schools arrive at the student’s doorstep. The innovative program is successful in providing multi-grade teaching to children of different ages and levels. The usage of special methods and techniques makes the learning enjoyable. For instance, such educational systems use games, storytelling methods, role-plays, flash cards, art and craft activity, educational CD’s and other joyful ways of delivering education. Use of tools like student response pads, content formats like simulated games and educational movies are also effective.
On eINDIA 2011 One of India’s most developed states, Gujarat, is making many new efforts for taking its educational infrastructure to the next level of advancement. The eIndia 2011 will put the spotlight on Gujarat’s innovative strategy for education. 34
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december / 2011 www.digitallearning.in