Digitalising School Education in India

The education system in India has undergone drastic changes over the past few years.  Today, more children are getting the opportunity to attend school, to access latest technology and to follow their dreams. Enactment of laws like the Right to Education Act (RTE) and several programmes like the mid-day meals in schools, a food for education programme run by the Government and some NGOs have helped in this aspect.

Though we are yet to attain 100% literacy, digitalisation has conquered us completely and schooling in India, no doubt, is the best example to prove this. The traditional types of classrooms using chalk and blackboard are slowly disappearing and are replaced by digital and virtual classrooms.

 

Today, many schools in India have introduced the ‘smart class’ for their students and have started teaching with the help of LCD screens and overhead projectors.

Why Digital Classrooms? Know the Benefits

The introduction of digital classrooms has helped both teachers and students alike.  The concept of digital learning has altogether changed the traditional way of memorising lessons; and it has taught students to apply their lessons in real life situations.  

With the digital classrooms, learning and teaching have become simple, easy and collaborative. Some benefits include:

·         Helps boost interest in learning

·         Clarity: helps convey  and present ideas and concepts more accurately and effectively

·         Fun and interactive: helped avoid one-way type of communication in classrooms. Students, no longer, have to sit in classrooms and listen to long monologue lectures delivered by their teachers.

·         Easy to assess and track student’s progress

·         No boundaries to learning: It takes the children out from the four walls of their classroom

·         Improves student’s analytical skills

·         Reduces the need to buy and maintain books or lecture notes in schools

Apart from smart class, some other projects in India which helped digital education in India include the free laptop scheme, Sugata Mitra’s  ‘Schools in a Cloud’ and the Aakash tablet project .

Though, smart class and these projects have made learning an enjoyable experience to students, definitely adoption of technology as a method of teaching has some disadvantages. Some of them include:

·         Books and reading habits are disappearing

·         Affects the ability to communicate

·         Expensive

·         Teachers need training to handle it

·         Difficult to maintain

We have experienced classroom learning and digital learning. The next in the education system in India is virtual learning where children can access knowledge at the comfort of their homes.

Although digitalising learning in India is a fabulous advancement, the need of the hour is giving education opportunities to underserved children in India.

No doubt, food for education programmes like mid-day meals in schools has helped improve education system in India. However, still millions of children in India miss school due to poverty. The best way to solve this is supporting food for education programmes. Support mid-day meals in schools and empower our little citizens. With more underserved children coming to school, they too can one day enjoy the benefits of digital learning.