President of
India Shri Pranab Mukherjee has today launched the SWAYAM, the portal that
takes high quality education to the doorstep of everyone, in the National
Convention of Vice Chancellors of all Universities in the Country, and Heads of
IISc/IITs/IIMs/NITs/IIITs at Vigyan Bhawan. Along with this, he has also
launched the SWAYAM Prabha – the 32 DTH channels operationalised for
telecasting high quality educational content free of charge using the GSAT-15
satellite transponders. The function was organised on the eve of the Guru
Poornima, a day for salutation to the teachers.
With the launch
of SWAYAM, India has become one of the few countries in the World which has its
own online interactive learning platform that provides, not only video
lectures, reading material but also assignments/quizzes that could end up in
securing credits after completing the assessment system. More than 400 Courses
are available on SWAYAM covering all the engineering and non-engineering
subjects at undergraduate and post-graduate levels. The UGC has already issued
Regulation that allows transfer of credits earned through the courses done
through SWAYAM into the academic record of the students. It is now possible for
the students and others to take courses of the prestigious IITs or IIMs without
formally studying there. The platform has been constructed by Microsoft with
totally indigenous efforts. The courses are available on www.swayam.gov.in
The SWAYAM
Prabha channels are available for free for anyone who has a set top box to
receive either DD Free Dish or DishTV. These channels transmit 4 hours of fresh
content every day, and contain lectures from the best teachers in the Country. There
is no monthly charge for viewing these channels. These channels include the
IIT-PAL channels which were intended to help students taking the prestigious
JEE examination, taught by the IIT faculty.
The President
has expressed hope that these digital initiatives would help in producing the
highly qualified youth required for the Make In India campaign. He exhorted all
the higher educational institution to march on the path of educational
excellence consisting of creation of new knowledge and dissemination of the
same for the benefit of the Nation. It was an emotional moment for the
President since many of these initiatives have taken shape under his guidance
as Visitor of these institutions.
Earlier, Sri
Prakash Javadekar Minister for HRD had honoured the President on the eve of
Guru Poornima stating that he had been an ideal teacher worthy of all the
respect. Dr M N Pandey MOS for HE has welcomed the President. Chief Economic
Adviser Dr Arvind Subramanian and Secretaries of Higher Education, and Ministry
of IT were present.
Nearly 700 Vice
Chancellors from across the Country are participating in the national
convention that started on 8th July and will end on 10th
July. This is the biggest ever gathering of heads of all the higher educational
institutions in the Country. Many digital initiatives taken under the National
Mission for Education through ICT have been showcased in the meeting.
The meeting
ended with adoption of “ Programme 17 for 17” : – A
17 point action plan for 2017 – for building digital campuses and high quality
education. The action plan covers measures like universal adoption of digital
education, digital financial transactions in the campuses from the current
academic year. Three Books have been launched on the occasion – account of
NMEICT initiatives, list of 323 courses which are on offer in the current
academic semester and a eBook of presentation of digital best practices by more
than 500 institutions.
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GG/Ak
