For India to emerge as a knowledge super power of the world in the shortest possible time it is imperative to convert our demographic advantage into knowledge powerhouse by nurturing and honing our working population into knowledge or knowledge enabled working population. With an ever expanding field of knowledge, the knowledge and skill sets required by an individual to successfully lead life has also expanded, throwing up challenges of learning more and more throughout one’s life. Add to that challenge of pedagogy being faced by the teachers to package more and more for the uptake by the students within the same amount of time available.
Fortunately, the ICT as a tool in education is available to us at this juncture and we wish to fully utilize it to enhance the current enrolment rate in Higher Education from 10% at present to 15 % by the end of the 11th Plan period. It is a momentous opportunity for all the teachers and experts in the country to pool their collective wisdom for the benefit of every Indian learner and, thereby, reducing the digital divides. Under this Mission, a proper balance between content generations, research in critical areas relating to imparting of education and connectivity for integrating our knowledge with the advancements in other countries is to be attempted. For this, what is needed is a critical mass of experts in every field working in a networked manner with dedication.
There are three guiding philosophies for this effort –
no talent of the country should be allowed to go waste,
all the services available through the content delivery portal Sakshat should be free and
freely available material on the web should be used so as to avoid reinventing the wheel
The development of knowledge modules having the right content to take care of the aspirations and to address to the personalized needs of the learners;
Research in the field of pedagogy for development of efficient learning modules for disparate groups of learners;
Standardization and quality assurance of contents to make them world class;
Building connectivity and knowledge network among and within institutions of higher learning in the country with a view of achieving critical mass of researchers in any given field;
Availability of e-knowledge contents, free of cost to Indians;
Spreading digital literacy for teacher empowerment
Experimentation and field trial in the area of performance optimization of low cost access/devices for use of ICT in education;
Providing support for the creation of virtual technological universities;
Identification and nurturing of talent;
Certification of competencies of the human resources acquired either through formal or non-formal means and the evolution of a legal framework for it; and
Developing and maintaining the database with the profiles of our human resources.
The committee shall be acting as a backbone, providing technical support. This committee shall be responsible for review of projects on a continuous basis. The mechanisms for streamlining projects and the integration of outcomes of projects shall fall in the jurisdiction of the committee. Broadly, the powers and function of the committee are suggested below.
Review of progress and decision to release installments of grants for specific projects.
Approval of milestones for deliverables of the project.
Project monitoring at regular intervals
Peer-review meetings for monitoring of progress and dovetailing with other projects in the same broad area of activity.
Evaluation & testing of milestones and intermediate outcomes of projects in their domain.
Assessing the utilization certificates submitted by Project Implementing Institutions. Primary negotiations on IPR related matters.
Major programs of mission shall be administered and managed under the supervision the committee. Interaction among different teams, groups and experts shall be assisted by the committee. The identification of all possible programs shall be done by the team so that outcomes of the mission become achievable. The overall integration across different major programs shall be supervised and evaluated by the team. Selection of project advisory and management committee
Evaluation of Project progress
Coordination to ensure smooth flow of resources
Enabling execution and integration of deliverables
Resolving IPR, copy rights and any other legal issues
Flexible structuring of groups and sub groups
Identifying feedback system and ensure that feedback reaches at appropriate group/sub group
Restructuring and reorganization for timely completion of objectives
