Is this a Beginning of Digital Education in India?

Education in India is changing, student and teacher interaction is not the way it used to be. The transformation from blackboard to the digital board is prevalent and it is growing rapidly. The resource of information is not limited to teachers or books. The curiosity of students is increasing, they don’t have the patience to find answers, they prefer to say “Hey Google” rather than digging books.

Great visionaries were/are able to see this revolution in the education industry. They knew that learning platform like ByJU’s, Khan Academy and NPTEL will gain popularity and trust over traditional mode of learning. These visionaries could see the future of digital education in India.

Not only learning but also managing higher education and schools systems has changed dramatically. Now administrations of educational institutes want to shift to no paper-pen process. Automation of complete academic operation with a single software i.e. Student Management System that can manage all the departments is overwhelming.

Can we say that it is the dawn of digital education in India?

I’ll prefer to say…Yes. But the real grand beginning is yet to happen.

India has a population of 430 million children in the age group 0-18. Of course, all these children have the right to education but do you know how many of them are getting it?

According to the last survey, the enrollment percentage in primary schools is 95%, secondary education is 69% and shockingly the enrollment rate in post-secondary is just 25%.

Reason?

Among 430 million children, India has only around 1.1 million schools in which 97K+ schools are single teacher school. Furthermore, there are 900 universities and 40,000 colleges for higher education in India where the enrollment percentage is only 25%. More than 60% of students(below age 10) dropping from schools in midway.

At present, the overall Student-teacher ratio of India for primary schools is 23:1 in which UP and Bihar have the ratio around 60:1 which is much more than standard. This decreases the quality of teaching and availability of proper resources.

You can see there is a huge gap between students and educators. There is no doubt India is moving toward a modern and more advanced education system. Penetration of education has increased by a big number during the last decades. But to achieve the real potential of this nation, education needs to reach to every single child.

How education will reach every child of our nation?

The answer is Digital Education.

Digital education can fill all the aforementioned gap in our education system. Technology can help to mitigate all the issues. It can increase the quality of learning, reachability of qualified teachers to students in remote areas. Tools like LCD, digital board, free digital library, lesson videos, etc. can help children to gain knowledge in more efficient ways.

Digital penetration of education will help children to grow in all areas. As it is a more interactive way of learning, students will stay engaged to concepts that will be taught, they will pay more attention to details and that will help them to complete assignments on time. One of the most important benefits of digital education is students can learn on their own pace whenever and wherever they want.

Not only in learning the digital revolution in education can also help educational institutes in managing their day-to-day tasks. Student Information Systems can help educators to focus their energy on teaching. It can manage all the administrative operation of institutes.

Conclusion

Digital education in India is ready to pave its way to make an extraordinary transformation for students, educators, and educational organizations. There are many initiatives such as SWAYAM, PRATHAM- LEARN OUT OF THE BOX, etc. are already started by the government of India but we have a long way to go. The collective efforts of tech giants, the government of India and the education industry, can bring the change our nation deserves. It is the dawn digital education in India and the rays are about to brighten the world.