Free Essays for Competitive Exams-National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology

National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology

The National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has been envisaged as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme to leverage the potential of ICT, in teaching and learning process for the benefit of all the learners in Higher Education Institutions in any time any where mode. This is expected to be a major intervention in enhancing the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in Higher Education by 5 percentage points. The Missionhas two major components - providing connectivity, along with provision for access devices, to institutions and learners; and content generation.

The Mission aims to extend computer infrastructure and connectivity to over 25000 colleges and 2000 polytechnics in the country including each of the departments of 419 universities/deemed universities and institutions of national importance as a part of its motto to provide connectivity up to last mile. LAN of up to 400 nodes on average has also been envisaged to be provided to the universities under the NMEICT scheme. The Mission, in addition to utilize the connectivity network of service providers, shall explore the possibility to provide connectivity utilizing Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT), Virtual Private Network (VPN) and EduSat channels.

An amount of Rs. 4612 crore was allocated by the Planning Commission during the XI Five Year Plan for the National Mission on Education through ICT. During the current financial year (2012-13), there is budget provision of Rs. 850.00 crore.

The Minister of Human Resource Development unveiled a low cost access-cum-computing device (LCAD) “Aakash on 5^th, October, 2011. The price of the LCAD is $ 49.98 / unit which include taxes, levies, and charges like freight and insurance, servicing and documentation etc. This price also includes one-year free replacement warranty from the manufacturer.

About 404 Universities and 18374 colleges have been provided connectivity under NMEICT Mission. LAN of up to 400 nodes is also being provided to the Universities under the Mission.

Under the NPTEL programme, web and video courses for engineering subjects and humanities streams are being developed. Over 250 courses are complete and made avialble in NPTEL phase-I and another 996 courses in various disciplines in engineering and science are getting generated in phase-II of NPTEL. E-contents for 77 Postgraduate subjects and 86 undergraduate subjects are also being developed under the Mission.

A strong Laboratory component is at the heart of all the Engineering Disciplines. It is a challenging job to provide an effective lab experience to engineering students. Under the Mission, almost 150 Virtual Labs are under development in various disciplines of engineering. Nearly 800 experiments are up and running.

Under the Mission, through NLIST programme, access to more than 3,100 e-journals and 80,000 e-books to all degree colleges except colleges imparting education in engineering, management, medical, nursing, pharmacy and dentistry.

The aim of the Mission is to freely make available knowledge in the form of e-content to learners across the country. To do so, in Mission Document, provision of 1000 DTH channels & other video based programme including iPTV for e-learning has been envisaged. Department of Space (DOS) has agreed to provide two Ku band transponders of 36 MHz each on GSAT-8. With this 50-60 education channels are being planned to be started immediately.

The Minister of Human Resource Development has also desired tht the NMEICT Mission should expand to the school education also during the XII Plan period. This ministry has suggested to Planning Commission that NMEICT scheme may be converted into Central Sector Scheme from Centrally Sponsored Scheme. For the XII Five Year Plan fund requirement of Rs. 22830 crore has been projected.