National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) has spent nearly Rs 2 crore in last three years on e-learning. The amount was spent on central government’s flagship ICT programmes such as SWAYAM, Virtual Open Schooling (VOS), Eklavaya–Massive Open Online Courses, MuktaVidyaVani, said a government statement.
In a written reply in Lok Sabha, Minister of State for HRD, Upendra Kushwaha informed that total fund spent on e-learning by NIOS during the last three years was Rs. 1,92,14,565. No separate fund was released to state government towards e-learning. He also said that currently there is no proposal to start e-learning in all the universities in India.
SWAYAM portal was launched earlier this year for providing online learning courses to anyone, anytime and anywhere basis from school to universities level. All Secondary Courses and Diploma in Elementary Education (D.El.Ed) programme are also delivered by National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) through SWAYAM Portal.
In addition, Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) has launched Mission on Education through Information and Communication and Technology (NMEICT) 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 anywhere mode. NIOS has also taken various steps to promote E-Learning at the school level, such as, Virtual Open Schooling (VOS), Eklavaya–Massive Open Online Courses, MuktaVidyaVani.
According to MHRD, SWAYAM uses indigenously developed IT platform, facilitating hosting of all courses, taught in classrooms from Class 9 till post-graduation to be accessed by anyone, anywhere at any time. The programme aims to provide interactive courses, prepared by teachers in the country and are available free of cost to the residents in India. Over 1,000 specially chosen teachers from across the country have participated in preparing SWAYAM courses.
SWAYAM courses are available on SWAYAM.gov.in website in four quadrants: video lecture, specially-prepared reading material that can be downloaded/printed, self-assessment tests through tests and quizzes and an online discussion forum for clearing the doubts.
To ensure quality content, seven national coordinators have been appointed. They are NPTEL for engineering, UGC for post-graduation education, CEC for under-graduate education, NCERT & NIOS for school education, IGNOU for out of the school students and IIMB for management studies.
