Global e-Schools and Communities Initiative – the lead convener for development of a National Policy on ICT in School Education in India
India has the World’s largest School System with more than 1.12 million schools spread over 604 districts across 35 States and Union Territories. Almost 35 million of its school aged children are still out of school, accounting for the largest out-of-school population in the world. It became apparent from initial studies that, while education systems in India face enormous challenges, the opportunity to apply ICTs to address many of these issues is also very significant.
However, lack of a National ICT for Education Policy linked to National Educational Objectives has led to a proliferation of solitary, expensive and unreplicable ICT initiatives across India, often resulting in negative outcomes.
At such a juncture, GeSCI’s facilitation of the creation of an National Policy ICT in School Education by indentifying educational objectives and working on an end-to-end framework, has found an immediate acceptance with the Ministry of Human Resources and Development (MHRD), Government of India (GoI). GeSCI believes that India has the intellectual and human capacity necessary to ensure the efficient and effective use and integration of ICT in Education and GeSCI is mobilising the influence and resource base of the governments at state and national level, as well as companies and NGOs working in India, to plan for and implement large scale e-schools initiatives.
GeSCI has adopted a collaborative and consultative process to develop the National Policy on ICT in School Education. It lays the groundwork for the development of an implementable ICT in Education Policy. The scope of India’s progress in ICTs is wide ranging with several major stakeholders currently involved in implementing ICT programmes in schools, either on behalf of the Govt of India, or the State governments or NGOs or Multi-National organisations etc. Because each is involved in specific areas of ICT, it is important for GeSCI to play a convenor’s role in order to assimilate the learning from these initiatives in order to inform the policy.
