National Level Consultation on Building a Policy for ICT in School Education
Inter-Ministerial Meet
February 13, 2008
Grand Inter Continental, New Delhi
The first Inter-Ministerial National Consultation on drafting the National policy on ICT in school education was held on February 13, 2008 under the aegis of Ministry of HRD with the help of their strategic partner Global e-Schools and Communities Initiative (GeSCI). The objective of the consultation was to conduct a collaborative, consultative and participatory process in making of the National Policy by involving Government departments along with other stakeholders including the educational institutions, private sector, experts, state representatives and civil society.
The agenda for the consultation consisted of: Introducing Pre-Draft Policy Document and taking the participants through the journey of the process undertaken so far in making of the draft policy and also apprise all about the roadmap planned to be followed,
Conducting Interactive Session on the Thematic Focus Areas of the draft policy, and
Summarising the feedback and planning a way ahead.
Attendees:
- S.C.Khuntia: Joint Secretary, Bureau of School Education, New Delhi
- P.K.Mohanty: Education Advisor, Ministry of HRD, New Delhi
- Sam Carlson: Lead Education Specialist, World Bank, New Delhi
- Dr. Gautam Bose: Deputy Director General, NIC, New Delhi
- H. N. S. Rao: Academic Head- ICT, Educomp Solutions Ltd., Gurgaon, Haryana
- Namur Rahman: Director, One World South Asia, New Delhi
- Vinnie Mehta: Executive Director, Manufacturer’s Association for Information Technology (MAIT), New Delhi
- Shabnam Sinha: CEO (PPP Initiatives)IL&FS Education Technology Services, Mumbai
- Dr. Babu Sebastian: Director, SIET, Govt. of Kerala
- Anvar Sadath: Executive Director, IT@ school Projects, Government of Kerala
- Muralidhar K.S.: CEO, 24x7guru.com, Hyderabad
- L. Balasubramanian: President, NIIT Limited, Chennai
- O. N. Singh: Commissioner, Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti, New Delhi
- Saurav Banerjee: Senior Education Specialist, USAID, New Delhi
- Ashish Garg: Programme Coordinator, India, GeSCI, Gurgaon, Haryana
- Kumar Naik: Commissioner for Public Instructions, Karnataka
- Dilip Rajekar: CEO, Azim Premji Foundation, Bangalore
- R. P. Sharma: Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), New Delhi
- Dr. Vasudha Kamat: Joint Director, NCERT, New Delhi
- Ram Narayanan: Director, Unlimited Potential Group,Microsoft (India), Bangalore
- Anshul Sonak: South Asia Education Manager, Corporate Affairs, Intel, Bangalore
- Shankar Choudhary: National Officer, UNESCO, New Delhi
- Sunil Alag: Department of Information Technology, New Delhi
- Utpal Mallik: Head- Department of Computer Education, NCERT, New Delhi
- Dr. C. Chandramohan: Advisor, Education, Planning Commission, New Delhi
- Ravi Gupta: Executive Director, CSDMS, Noida, Uttar Pradesh
- Mitra Lal: Additional Director, Secondary Education, Uttar Pradesh
- Dilip Kumar: Under Secretary, Ministry of HRD, New Delhi
- T. S.Y. Aravindakshan: Account Manager, Education, Microsoft, Bangalore
- Sundeep Saxena: Divisional Sales Head, NIIT, New Delhi
- A. K. Goyal: Central Institute of Education (CIE), New Delhi
- Dr. C. V. Vijaya Kumar: AVP- ICT, Educomp Solutions Ltd., Gurgaon, Haryana
- Soumya Kanti: President- ICT, Educomp Solutions Ltd., Gurgaon, Haryana
- Temjen Aier: School Education Department, Government of Nagaland
- Rishikesh P: Sr. Researcher, Media Lab Asia, New Delhi
- M C Pant: Chairman, Nation Institute of Open School (NIOS)
- Ashok Kumar: Project Manager, Department of Elementary Education- I Bureau
- Ramesh K Verma: Consultant, Reliance, New Delhi
The discussion was primarily based on Introduction, Vision, Mission, Background note, Definition of ICT, Objectives and Targets, and Thematic/Strategic Objectives namely, Infrastructure, ICT Content Development, Capacity Building. Amongst the participants, it was consensually agreed that there was a need to have another round of consultation on the remaining seminal sections of the policy draft document, such as, Research and Innovation, Monitoring and Evaluation, Public Private Partnership, Norms and Standards and Quality in School Education.
