We have witnessed significant changes Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has brought about in our day to day lives. Examples include online booking of train and air tickets, online banking, communication, collection of information and social networking. The ICT has much larger role to play, which will bring about changes that are similar to the industrial revolution. The real benefit of ICT lies with creating a “knowledge society”, which will take India among the best in the world.

Education is divine

Education has always been considered as divine in India, and that is evident from our history which dates backs to thousands of years. India after the independence took concrete steps to improve education in the country with the help of education commission. As a result there has been an increase in the number of education institutions in the country both from primary and higher education perspective.

Education system in India lacks quality

Now our education system is in the news for wrong reasons, which includes lack of quality, shortage of skilled workforce and so on. Both primary education and higher education are in a bad state in the country. India will find it difficult to achieve its ambition of becoming a powerful economy in the near future. The government has come up with different plans to improve the condition of education system in the country, but met with little success.

ICT in education

During the 1980’s India had realized the importance of technology in the class rooms and has provided limited number of computers in the schools across India. As a part of applying ICT on a wider context, the government has come up with programmes such as Akshaya Kendra, SSA, etc. Government is also planning to introduce technology in class rooms to make the process of teaching and learning more effective.

In the case of government aided and private schools and colleges, computer and projectors have taken up the place of blackboards. This has made education more interactive and engaging as it includes slide shows, videos and audio which support the process of teaching. This will create interest among students and since they can learn by visualizing, the process becomes meaningful.

There is an increasing adoption of technology in classrooms across the country among education institutions which are either government aided or private. There are even virtual learning methods which gives students access to study material and other information. Virtual classrooms help a teacher at a particular location to engage students in different location, while actively monitoring them. This gives the students to interact with a wider community of teachers and students and thus expand their knowledge.

Advantage of ICT in classrooms

Technology in classrooms offers huge potential for enhancing the learning process. It helps in transforming the way in subjects like science, mathematics and English are taught in the classrooms. It not only makesthe process of teaching interactive, but also enables the teachers to use visuals means to make the process productive. For instance, it helps to bring a virtual lab to the classrooms where students can observe various experiments while they learn the theories and concepts. This increases the amount of information that the students can retain, which otherwise is not possible. Also this encourages the students to think logically and learn by relating theory with visual examples.

ICT more useful in professional courses

In the case of professional courses education such as engineering, the use of technology in classrooms will help students to enrich and improve their skills. It also improves their ability to think critically and develop their problem solving skills. Students can make use of the internet to look for development in the field of engineering and thus become updated on the subjects, which makes them job ready.

ICT spreading to a wider area in education

Even though the use of technology in class rooms is now limited to government aided and private institutions, the government is taking initiatives to introduce it in schools across the country. Government run schools such as the Kendriya Vidyalayas have started to use technology in their classrooms. Private organizations like Intel has come up with technology based learning programmes and are cooperating with NGO’s and state governments to introduce ICT in schools.

ICT in medical colleges

The National Knowledge Commission has come up with an ambitious project to connect all the medical colleges in the country through Virtual Teaching. The programme was initiated last month with the linking of Gandhi Medical College and All India Institute of Medical Sciences. This will improve the standard of medical education in the country and also enhance the interaction among the medical colleges. As a result, knowledge sharing between medical colleges will improve and that will have a direct impact on the quality of medical professionals. It will also ensure uniformity in the field of medical education and this can be attained in other fields also with the use of this technology.

ICT still away from rural areas

Even though we have travelled long way in implementing ICT in classroom, little has been done to ensure that it is applied in institutions across the rural India. As always, rural areas have been ignored and till now adoption of technology has not contributed in uplifting the poor. In this case too we will have the same old excuse of “India is a developing country”, which is often the story heard in the rural areas. Lack of infrastructure such as proper buildings, electricity, internet connection, lack of teachers and the lack of commitment above all has lead to this situation.

Education is the driving force behind the economic prosperity of a country like India. So the government and the citizens have the responsibility to ensure that the education system contributes to the development of the state and well being of the citizens. The best available option to improve the education system is technology, which should be applied wisely so that a better educated generation is molded. Connecting the rural India should be of top priority of the government if it needs to achieve inclusive growth.