Introduction

The educational challenge in MP has been to universalise the provisioning of basic schooling and ensure quality education in schools by building up capacity of teachers, students and education managers. The strategic planning for this is placed within a policy of decentralised participatory governance coupled with the use of modern technology resources, especially information technology. Today information and communication technology is transforming education. Teachers and students have access to more information, more ways to interact, collaborate and more approaches to instruction and learning than ever before. The ICT has universally been acknowledged as an important tool for teaching and learning ultimately leading to social revolution and national development. With the introduction of computers in the education sector, many programs and projects have so far been implemented by different States all over India. The use of ICT for improving quality in the education is multi-fold. In the education sector, ICT is being used for improving the achievement levels of students, teacher training, monitoring of educational activities and maintaining a database of educational indicators. All these initiatives directly or indirectly are assisting in maintaining the quality of education.

The approach to ICT in the education centres, rests on the belief that on-line governance should not only improve the internal communication system but even more importantly improve the public-private interface, i.e. it should improve the quality of services rendered by the department concerned for the use of community. In this perspective, the objectives of the use of ICT in the education sector are to:

• Improve the content and process of education by improving the capacity of students and teachers i.e. improving the quality of services delivered by the department to the community
• Improve information base for instant internal communication
• Develop capacity among educational personnel and teachers to be able to synthesise their understanding of academic and managerial issues

State’s ICT Initiatives in Education

The state strongly believes that information and communication technology can yield significant outcomes in improving the quality of education. Used with sensitivity it can help bridge the digital divide, by focussing on the educational needs of the learners in deprived areas. The use of ICT in education in M. P. has been in the context of, a state, committed to universalise elementary education with special focus on deprived children and teachers of remote areas. The State’s approach to ICT in the education sector is shaped by the overall vision and strategy for bringing excellence in education. The State’s rationale for using ICT in education is based on the notion of:

• Improving the quality of teaching and learning processes
• Providing educational technology based access to a wider student and teacher population
• Meeting the needs of students and teachers, who are unable to get quality teachers or teacher trainers
• Providing experts to a wider population, who would  otherwise be unavailable to everyone
• Linking students and teachers from different social, cultural, economic and experiential background
• Use ICT for providing social support to a school 

Headstart – A Computer Aided Learning Program for Students and Teachers

As per Information Technology policy of the State, computer education is a major priority of the State government. Under the DPEP programme, the State in the year 2000, initiated a computer-enabled education programme called “Headstart”. The programme uses computer as a teaching learning tool at elementary education level. The main intention has been to bridge the digital divide between the urban and rural student population in terms of access to modern technological aids in education.

The Headstart program run by Rajya Shiksha Kendra (RSK), in Madhya Pradesh is an initiative to provide computer-enabled education to school children. It is a move from computer education to computer-enabled education, where computer literacy has been envisioned as a bi-product of “Computer Aided Learning”. Besides computer based self-learning, the programme is becoming an exciting example of collaborative learning and greater socialisation process. Headstart also aims to develop computer enabled self-learning approach in a peer situation.

The programme is in operation since November 2000. Initially operational in 648 JSKs, it was expanded to 2070 JSKs in the year 2003-04. During the year 2005-06 it was expanded in 494 schools. In 2006-07 it was again expanded in 149 schools. Thus as of date, the Headstart programme is being run in 3361 schools in 48 districts of the State. The programme has been appreciated by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, GOI, and is perhaps the largest computer enabled education programme in India. Interactive multi-media rich lessons are developed in-house. These programs are in Hindi and are highly contextualised. Some Hindi speaking States of India are also using these programs.

With the expansion of ICT related activities in the State, it is essential that teacher educators are trained in the basics of ICT. In view of this, large scale training of teacher educators in ICT is being conducted in the State. A computer laboratory is being developed in the SCERT wing of Rajya Shiksha Kendra for the purpose. In collaboration with Microsoft Corporation, Ltd. an “IT Academy” is also being established in Bhopal. Regular training courses for teachers and teacher educators shall be conducted through IT Academy. It has also been proposed to introduce computer literacy for students at upper primary level. Textbook primers are being developed for the purpose.

Fund-a-school – A Website for Global Partnership in Education

One of the most innovative programs for networking between State education initiatives and the global community, has been the State’s most familiar program – “fund-a-school”. Today, Internet has created a global community. Fund-a-school seeks to use the Internet to bridge the gap between the connected and the isolated, familiar and the non-familiar and between accessed and the remotest. Through Internet, the program opens a window for the connected to see and support the isolated. It also provides opportunities for the less privileged to equalise. The idea is to link the under developed and developing schools to the larger global community, so that they can get support from the Indian and global community to develop and flourish. The web site is dedicated for attracting contributions from society towards the school. It provides online facility for donations to any one interested for promoting school activities and development of school infrastructure. With a contribution to fund-a-school, any one can become a partner in building the future of the school children of a village in Madhya Pradesh in India.

Fund-a-school’s website www.fundaschool.org gives information of all the elementary education schools in Madhya Pradesh. One can select a school from the website and straightway support the selected school/s. Contributions can be made online through the ICICI Bank payment gateway. The program has been cleared under the “Foreign Contributions Regulation Act” of Government of India. The fund-a-school program has also been given clearance under 80–G of Income Tax Act of India for a rebate in the Income Tax. So far, many individuals, trusts and institutions have supported to selected schools. As of date, individuals and institutions in India and overseas have supported more than US $186,000, covering 322 elementary education schools across the State. During the current year, the program has been made more flexible and scope for contributions increased.

GIAN- A General Information Access Network for the Citizens

The GIAN project provides computer and Internet facilities in each district headquarter of the State. Ten computers have been provided to each district library. These libraries have also been provided Internet facilities, so that any one interested in getting useful information from the Internet can get it. The facility is on payment basis. Most of these Centres have been working on a self-sustainable model. Some centres have also started short-term computer courses for students and the general public.

Edusat - Connecting the Isolated

Edusat - the satellite launched by Indian Space Research Organisation, Ahmedabad, is full of communication technology potentials in terms of provision of video/data broadcast using the DVB-RCS technology. The State strongly believes that the potentials of Edusat should be utilised at the optimum level in the school education sector. This Satellite provides communication capacities to meet the requirements of several sectors of education like primary, secondary, higher and higher education etc. The services of this satellite are free. A massive plan has been formulated for the effective implementation of the Edusat project. A teaching end has been established in the Rajya Shiksha Kendra, Bhopal. It is proposed to conduct video conferencing from this end. Similarly, 65 Satellite Interactive Terminals are being established in various teacher education and training institutes of the State.

In collaboration with IGNOU and ISRO, the Rajiv Gandhi Initiative for Edusat supported elementary education program was started on December 17th 2005. As of date, 700 schools in Sidhi district and 30 schools in Jabalpur district have been provided ROT facilities. This includes a satellite receiver, a dish antenna and a 29” CTV. The project uses solar power. A teaching-end studio has been developed in the IASE building at Jabalpur. At present, a regular two hours transmission is being done for elementary classes. The transmission is in school subjects and is also repeated in the afternoon. Transmission schedule is developed in consultation with Rajya Shiksha Kendra. Studies on the impact of this project have been taken up by IGNOU. Based on the research findings, the program shall be reviewed and modified accordingly.

Integrated Project Monitoring System (IPMS)

This is a program designed in order to improve the delivery of educational programmes and the management of schools by strengthening the planning and monitoring system of the Education Department through comprehensive computerised MIS. This is a system for collection of village and school based data required for educational planning and monitoring at different management levels. The teachers collect basic data on pre-designed formats, district computers, compile them and they are electronically transferred to State office. The programme is designed to support planning decision and monitoring correctives. Internet connection enables regular information flow basic to the management of a large schooling programme. Decisions on school provisioning, deployment of resources and management correctives are made possible through this.

Besides above programs, services like declaration of Board results of class 5th and 8th examination, computerisation of examination system, online cohort studies, online monitoring of civil works etc have also been undertaken.