Edusat for Enhancing Primary Education in Karnataka State
- Paper number
IAC-07-E1.3.04
- Author
Dr. P.K. Jain, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), India
- Coauthor
Mr. Jagdish Murthy, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), India
- Coauthor
Mr. H Rayappa, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), India
- Year
2007
- Abstract
Education plays a pivotal role in effecting the social change by altering the human perspective and transforming the traditional mindset of the society. The promotion of the universal primary education has become the top priority, especially for the developing countries like India. But the extension of quality education to remote and rural regions becomes a Herculean task for a large country like India with multi-lingual and multi-cultural population separated by vast geographical distances and, in many instances, inaccessible terrain. Since independence, India has witnessed substantial increase in number of primary schools as well as the student enrollment. But the lack of adequate rural educational infrastructure and non-availability of good teachers in sufficient numbers adversely affect the efforts made in this direction. Communication Satellite makes an ideal broadcast system using its vast foot prints covering whole country. It, therefore, has tremendous advantage where one teacher is required to reach many students scattered across the country. The concept of beaming educational programmes through satellites was effectively demonstrated for the first time in India in 1975-76 through the Satellite Instructional Television Experiment (SITE) conducted using American satellite ATS-6. Subsequently several experiments, educational programmes and networks were implemented before launching a satellite, Edusat, in September 2004, dedicated exclusively for educational services. Karnataka was the first state to utilize Edusat for promoting primary education. A primary schools receive-only network was setup in Chamrajnagar district of Karnataka connecting 885 primary schools through Edusat. After realizing the success of the network in Chamrajnagar district, it has now been extended to the Gulbarga district too connecting about 900 schools. This article presents an overall view of the implementation of the Edusat Utilization Programme of ISRO in Karnataka state focusing the primary education. The configuration of the state-run broadcast network, its utility in meeting various challenges of primary education sector, lessons learnt during its implementation and the current status and utilization have also been included.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
IAC-07-E1.3.04.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).
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