Himachal CM Jai Ram urges PM Modi to allocate 5 self-learning DTH educational channels to state

Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur has urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to allocate to the state five TV channels of the total 200 announced recently under the ‘Swayam Prabha’ scheme for telecasting high-quality educational programmes.

Swayam Prabha is an initiative by the Union Ministry of Human Resources Development to provide high-quality learning through DTH channels across the length and breadth of the country on 24X7 basis.

It has curriculum-based course content covering diverse disciplines. This is primarily aimed at making quality learning resources accessible to remote areas where internet availability is still a challenge. The DTH channels are using the GSAT-15 satellite for programme telecasts.

Scope of the channels
Swayam Prabha has new content daily for at least four hours, which would be repeated five more times in a day, allowing the students to choose the time of their convenience. The channels are uplinked from BISAG, Gandhinagar. The contents are provided by NPTEL, IITs, UGC, CEC, IGNOU, NCERT and NIOS. The INFLIBNET Centre maintains the web portal.

What DTH channels will offer

• Higher education: Curriculum-based course contents at post-graduate and under-graduate level covering diverse disciplines such as arts, science, commerce, performing arts, social sciences and humanities, engineering, technology, law, medicine, agriculture, etc. All courses would be certification-ready in their detailed offering through Swayam, the platform being developed for offering MOOCs courses.
• School education (9-12 levels): Modules for teacher’s training as well as teaching and learning aids for children of India to help them understand the subjects better and also help them in preparing for competitive examinations for admissions to professional degree programmes.
• Curriculum-based courses: These will ensure learners can meet the needs of life-long learners of Indian citizens in India and abroad.
• Assisting students (Class XI and XII) prepare for competitive exams will be another aim.

The Chief Minister raised the demand at the NITI Aayog meeting in New Delhi on August 7. About the education scenario in Himachal, Jai Ram said the gross enrollment ratio of primary, middle and high schools in the state was 100 per cent whereas it was 85.6 per cent in case of senior secondary schools. He said the ratio went up to 98.8 per cent if technical institutions were added to the senior secondary level.

Thakur said girl children of the state were being provided education and free residential facility, besides skill education in 14 Kasturba Gandhi Girls Schools. He said the education database was being digitised in the state and capacity building of teachers was being done for preparing high-quality study material in digital mode.

The Chief Minister said that students in the state had easy access to higher education institutions and infrastructure had been strengthened. Sardar Patel University in district Mandi has been made functional from April, 2022. He said that the average of state’s gross enrollment ratio in higher education was 40.8 per cent against the national average of 27.1 per cent. He said scholarships under various categories and merit scholarships of girls and boys had also increased. The News Radar