Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in School Education

Introduction Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has become one of the basic building blocks of modern society. Many countries now regard understanding of ICT and mastering the basic ICT skills (Communication, Collaboration, Creativity, Critical Thinking and Problem Solving) as part of the core of education, along with reading, writing and arithmetic.

The Government of India seeks to strengthen the use of ICT in almost every sphere. To promote the use of ICT in school education the Government of India had introduced ICT@Schools scheme in the year 2004 {by merging the scheme of Educational Technology -1972 and Computer Literacy and Studies in Secondary Schools (CLASS)-1984}. The scheme was revised in the year 2010 and 2011 and a component to develop quality digital contents and incentives for teachers (National ICT Award for School Teachers) was introduced. Till date, 88993 (60.8%) secondary and senior secondary schools of both government and government aided have been covered under ICT@Schools scheme out of total 146303 schools. Besides, Computer Aided Learning (CAL) program under SSA provided ICT infrastructure in Upper Primary schools, through provision of Rs.50 Lakh per annum per district. The CAL scheme had a coverage of 92,886 out of 4,20,221 schools (22%) approximately. Under the Teacher Education plan, ICT infrastructure are also being provided to the TEIs i.e. SCERTs/SIEs, DIETs, BITEs, etc.

Now the Digital India Campaign (2015) strives to transform India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy by focusing on the three vision areas:

• i. Digital Infrastructure as Core Utility to Every Citizen,
• ii. e-Governance and Services on Demand and
• iii. Digital literacy and empowerment of citizen.

The three cardinal principles of access, equity and quality could be served well by harnessing the immense potential of ICT. Anytime anywhere delivery of quality education employing ICT is one such implication of Technology in Education. Development in India depends on the extent to which we are able to provide quality education and skill training to all our citizens. Relevant use of technology will help to effectively solve India’s problem of providing quality education and development of skilled human resources. ICT needs to be used to provide high quality education, as well as, holistic education to each child including children and youth with special needs and marginalized sections of the society.

ICT in any system and situation includes ICT infrastructure, creation, storage and retrieval of digital resources, use of inter-operable software, technical support, networking using telecommunication and satellite-based communication to enhance learning. The schools and TEIs require a robust, reliable ICT infrastructure in order to effectively integrate ICT into all aspects of school life and that of TEIs including teaching, learning and evaluation.

Education system in any country aims at preparing youth to participate creatively in the establishment, sustenance and the growth of a knowledge society leading to all round Socio Economic Development of the nation and the global competitiveness. Therefore, this integrated ICT guideline for schools and Teacher Education Institutions subsumes all previous guidelines to promote the following thrust areas:

• Universal equitable, open and free access to a state of art ICT and IT enabled learning environment, tools and digital resources to all students, teachers and teacher educators (BITEs, DIETs, SCERTs, etc.)
• Development of local, localized and vernacular quality digital contents in regional languages and to enable students, teachers and teacher educators to partner in the development and critical use of shared digital resources.
• Enable sharing of ICT infrastructure for skill development of youth and digital literacy of the community.
• ICT enabled assessment & evaluation of the learning outcomes of students in a cumulative manner, tracking of the performance of the teachers, teacher educators, managers etc.
• Development of professional networks of teachers, teacher educators, resource persons in schools and TEIs to catalyse and support resource sharing, up-gradation and continuing education of teachers and educators; guidance, counselling, academic support of students, resource sharing, management and networking of school managers/administrators etc., resulting in improved efficiencies in the schooling process and TEIs.
• Promote research, evaluation and experimentation using ICT tools and ICT enabled practices in order to inform, guide and utilise the potentials of ICT in school and teacher education.
• Appropriate ICT interventions will be adopted to bridge the digital divide with regard to education of girls, and other disadvantaged social groups, including SCs/STs, minorities, CWSN, and other marginalized communities.
• A critical understanding of ICT is core to its success, hence, its benefits, risks and limitations- safe, secure and ethical use of ICT needs to be infused in schools and teacher education curriculum.
• Sensitization of all the stakeholders on the disposal of e-waste and contribute in sustainable development.