Computers Today, May 1-15, 1999, Viewport

May 1-15, 1999 VIEWPORT

Medium Betrays the Message

Utpal Mallik

Few policy decisions of the Government of India have evoked so much general attention as the one on IT. A special Web site has been opened by the national task force on IT policy to make the metamorphosis of their policy visible. The site is frequented by many, we presume. Such manifestation of public interest, apart from business concerns of hardware vendors and software developers, speaks of our growing awareness of information and communication technologies.

What the task force has come up with, concerns many interest groups. As an educator, I find some of its recommendations on the place of IT in education emphatic. Here is a development which should be taken to its logical conclusion.

IT Action Plan for Education

I am yet to see a functional plan for integrating Information Technology into education of mainstream pupils with a clear picture of the possibilities that this integration may open up. I haven't seen many viable proposals for making the Internet accessible to all school goers and bringing about meaningful changes in their schooling. And very few educational organisations at any level have their own perspective plans for moving on to the information age.

But education, suddenly, has begun to look like a green pasture. Organisations, whose jobs so far had been mending computers, have discovered a role for themselves in spreading IT education. In content and scope, however, what they want to do is anachronistic; they have not grown beyond their precursor of the mid-1980s. It's time to do something smarter. Others, who have done a better homework to understand the education sector, plan to bring together all educational sub-sectors-from the district level to the national level-within a network. Why? To transact curricula. What is the preparedness among the target groups? Do they have their own IT plans? Who would educate the user? Who would develop the learning packages that would travel along the network to their targets? Who would monitor the effectiveness of centralised curricula for the entire country? What ultimate benefits shall we derive out of this? We are not ready to discuss, yet.

The task force must be well aware of what it means to make computers and the Internet connections available to all schools in this country by 2003. Two hundred million children and five million teachers in a million schools across the country-that's what we are talking about. Nine out of ten primary schools, eight out of ten middle schools, seven out of ten secondary schools and five out of ten senior secondary schools are rural schools. Availability of telephone and electricity connections, monitoring and maintenance of IT facilities-all this is linked to the urban-rural question.

Changing Technology

Logistics apart, large scale integration of IT into schooling has several imperatives for the educator who has to understand the role of technology in change, be sensitive to social and psychological impacts of technology and receptive to the possibilities that global information sharing opens up.

I do not know how often the Web site of the national task force has been deluged by suggestions and comments on the Information Technology policy with respect to the education sector. Those that I have bumped into do not inspire. Most others seem to be in a hurry to say something. The medium is betraying the message that few are thinking of making our schools and universities ready for the information age.

The writer is Professor of Computer Education in the NCERT, New Delhi

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