ISRO to help govt set up satellite TV classrooms to bridge learning gap during Covid-19 school closures..
ISRO to help govt set up satellite TV classrooms to bridge learning gap during Covid-19 school closures..
Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) gave the nod to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education on Friday to offer technical assistance in this regard to help bridge the learning gap.
ISRO scientists gave a detailed presentation in front of the committee about the satellite TV classrooms that have been proposed.
"Scientists from ISRO attended the meeting today and made a presentation about the use of satellite TV classrooms for the students before the officials of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) and Doordarshan," sources told ANI.
Education secretaries and senior officials of five states including Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, Telangana and Arunachal Pradesh also attended the panel meeting.
Why does India need satellite TV classes?
Since the school closures in March 2020 due to the pandemic, reports have been arising from across India which talks about the hardships being faced by students, especially from rural and marginalised areas, in trying to get access to online classes.
The learning gap and the digital divide between privileged and underprivileged students is quite large despite the many solutions the Indian government has tried to implements through online platforms, and classes on radio, Whatapp and mobile phones.
The main culprit is the lack of laptops, smartphones or internet among the underprivileged communities. Rural students have been reported to be resorting to climbing trees, hills and even trekking through forests to get internet for online classes.
An NCERT survey on over 34,000 Indian students released in August 2020 reported that around 27% school students have no access to smartphones, laptops to attend online classes.
A late 2020 report from the United Nations also found that an estimated 1.3 billion children between the ages of three and 17 do not have internet connections in their homes.
The government thus envisioned that establishing satellite TV classes in various areas suffering from such learning gaps may help the problems being faced in attending online classes.
The Vinay Sahastrabuddhe-led parliamentary panel had sought help from ISRO to assist the states in this venture.
ISRO ready to provide satellite rights to states
Scientists from ISRO said they were ready to provide individual states with the necessary satellite rights but said that it would be provided only to those states which were willing to use the technology.
More about the proposed satellite TV classrooms
The ISRO scientists made a presentation on how the satellite TV classes could be implemented and used. With the help of satellite TVs that broadcast school-based educational programmes, the issue of lack of laptops, smartphones and data connectivity can be solved.
Students can attend these satellite TV classes in cluster classrooms, primarily in rural areas. If properly implemented, it can do much to bridge the digital divide among students in India.
Parliamentary committee to visit Ladakh, and Jammu and Kashmir
A five-day visit to Ladakh, and Jammu and Kashmir has been planned by members of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education, Women, Children, Youth and Sports for the next week.
This visit will help around 30 members of the panels to understand the ground reality of the schools, colleges, universities and sports complexes where work and studies have been affected due to Covid-19.
In late May, India Today reported how the lack of internet connectivity in remote Ladakh was creating problems with school children unable to attend online classes, and villages unable to book vaccination slots.
What experts have to say about the introduction of satellite TV classes
"After the virtual phase of education amid pandemic, implementing satellite TV classrooms for Indian students is a great move, especially for rural areas," says Sumeet Jain, Co-founder at Yocket, an online platform for international education.
"This will help in distribution and reach out to areas with not so good internet access or for those families who didn't have smartphones or good internet but with TV now they can learn in a much better and interactive way," he says.
"The most important step towards this is to check the quality of content being broadcast," he adds.
"To provide technical assistance for satellite TV classrooms in the country is a welcome step as it will have a positive and lasting impact in the education industry. As TV is widely pervasive, having TV as a cost-effective way of delivering online education could be beneficial," says Rajeev Tiwari, Co-founder at Stemrobo Technologies, an edtech company providing STEM education to K-12 students.
"With ISRO coming into the picture that is bound to make Satellite TV-based Online delivery more affordable and simpler," he adds.
