Computer Aided Learning in School

The SSA has proposed to the state that "information technology, business product outsourcing and software are the sunshine sectors of Goa's economy, which traditionally depends on mining, tourism and related activities. The IT/software sector is intensive in terms of skilled labour. Goa, with its highly literate and dominantly English-speaking population, needs to sharpen its competitive edge in this sector. This industry is also friendly to the fragile ecological conditions of Goa."

 After several years of running the computer literacy programme in schools, the state is set to introduce computer-aided learning programmes for children belonging to the upper primary level from the next academic year. There are 421 upper primary schools in Goa consisting of 61,518 children. The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) and the Directorate of Education (DoE) have proposed to provide computer assisted learning from Std V to VII. While the hardware and the furniture for the purpose will be provided by the DoE, some of which already exists in schools under the department's computer literacy scheme, the salary component of teachers is proposed to be borne by the SSA.

The SSA has therefore proposed to nurture and groom this sector with the provision of computer education and computer aided learning to the students studying in upper primary schools. Sources in the SSA said that they have nearly completed training of key resource persons in computer aided learning programme in English, Mathematics, Science and Social Science. These key resource persons will subsequently train computer teachers involved in the project. Training is expected to be completed by the current academic year and computer-aided learning is set to be implemented from the next academic year.

Each computer teacher will handle a batch of 40 students for theory and practical classes. The computer teacher will also be required to train other teachers working in the respective schools by organizing separate classes once a week. tnn

Overview

Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) was launched with the objective to achieve Universalization of

Elementary Education and fulfill the constitutional mandate of providing free and

compulsory education for life to the children of age group 6-14 years. The reduction in drop

out and repetition rate, enhancement in the achievement levels and making learning joyful are

some of the objectives of SSA. It was felt that use of Information and Communication

Technology (ICT) and computers in the form of Computer Aided Learning (CAL) may help

in achieving the said objectives. Keeping this in view, a component of computer education

was kept under the Functional Head of ‘Innovation’ in the framework of SSA. Under this

component there is a provision of Rs.50 lakh per district per year available to the States for

CAL.

2. Department of School Education & Literacy, with the objective to strengthen the CAL

programme, constituted a Committee for formulation of Guidelines for Computer (IT)

Education under SSA at elementary stage. The Committee, in its report has deliberated on the

national and international status of CAL at elementary and primary level, suggested

interventions for CAL under SSA, provides estimates of population which needs to be

covered under the programme, the level of infrastructure and hardware needed, analysis of

available resources, possibility of mobilization of additional resources and strategies for

implementation of the programme.

3. The main interventions required for introduction of CAL and making use of ICT in

Elementary Education, as suggested by the Committee are training of the teachers, creation of

infrastructure, development and production of State specific e-teaching/ learning material in

local language and sensitization of the State-level statutory bodies like Board of Education

and SCERT. The first & most important tier is for training of teachers and necessary

sensitization of States and their statutory bodies. The second tier suggested creation of

infrastructure, development of e-teaching/learning material and formulation of scheme for

making available additional resources. It was also suggested that pending formulation and

approval of the scheme to mobilize additional resources, the available resources may be

utilized for CAL and use of ICT in elementary education.

4. Role of private sector was considered equally important in not only implementing CAL in

elementary stage but also for mobilizing additional resources. With this in view, workshops

were held with representation from the private sector firms and all State/UT representative.

The objective of the workshops was to review the progress of implementation of the CAL in

States and to develop a public private partnership. The workshops also facilitated the

information sharing on latest developments in the technology forefront. The first CAL

workshop was convened in Bangalore on February 26-27, 2004. This was followed up with

Workshops in Mumbai (August) 12-13, 2004), Hyderabad (June 20-21, 2005), New Delhi

(7.11.2006) and New Delhi (January 9-10, 2009). These workshops also provide a platform

for State Project Directors and representatives of private firms face-to-face so that the former

could specify the problems faced by them in the implementation of CAL in their respective

States, and also the requirement in their States and the later could offer solutions that they

have, if any, and the material - hardware and software - they could provide.

5. In addition to this a brainstorming workshop was organized in 2009 (September 15-16) by

Department of School Education & Literacy with the objective of developing strategies for

Overview on Computer Aided Learning (CAL) under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan: Page 2 of 2

implementation of CAL aligned to promoted pedagogy & quality goals. The workshop was

attended by educationists most of whom were involved in the development of the national

focus group paper on educational technology by NCERT. Besides other suggestions

regarding the implementation of this intervention, the key recommendation of the Resource

Persons was that, “the best strategy to implement & derive positive outcomes from IT

integrated educational delivery mechanisms like CAL is to empower teachers for

development of digital teaching learning material & their use. It is important to understand

that the basis behind use of IT integrated mechanism must not be its mere availability, rather

because of its qualities such as extendibility, reach ability, flexibility, interactivity that can

overcome the situational gaps in teaching learning process”. It was also suggested by the

resource persons that as these digital resources have immense power to reveal real life

situations that, no other teaching learning material can do, using them efficiently can be most

effective in difficult situations in teaching learning processes. The precise & innovative use

of ICT capability powered by teachers’ own idea & creativity can perhaps be the mostly

talked about paradigm shift and an approach for accomplishment of the vision of 21st century

teacher role.

5. Due to all these efforts, since inception up till 2009’ March, 67188 schools have been

covered under Computer Aided Learning, 102.61 lakhs children have been benefitted &

capacity building on use of digital teaching learning material has been provided to 1.99 lakh

teachers. Apart from this enormous teaching learning materials in state specific languages

have been developed especially in Mathematics, Science & Languages at upper primary

level.