UPSC Mains Previous Year Questions: Education System in India | Indian Society for UPSC CSE PDF Download

How have digital initiatives in India contributed to the functioning of the education system in the country? Elaborate your answer (UPSC GS1 2020)

Digitalization is the trending term in 21st century. Right from a child to an experienced old person, they are surrounded by laptops, computers, tablets and smartphones. Educational system is also getting influenced due to the digitalization era.
Contribution of digital initiatives on the functioning of the education system in India 

• Education is the pillar of any country. Education transforms the person and leads him/her on the path where he can strive for the economic and social development of the country. The educational system is going through rapid transformation due to which, the children of this generation are be limited to traditional textbooks. 
• Their thirst for knowledge cannot be quenched using the age-old methodologies and pedagogies. Their hunger for ever-increasing information can be satisfied by the use of digital tools and Internet in the form of e-learning courses, digital textbooks, interactive animation videos and integrating ICT in classrooms The traditional classrooms are getting transformed to “SMART” classrooms. However, this process of digitalization has not touched the rural areas of India effectively. This has created a digital divide between the urban areas and rural areas. “Digital India” aims to bridge this gap by connecting the remotest villages through WIFI and broadband. 
• The “Digital India” programme is a flagship programme aiming to transform India into a digitally powerful and energized society and skilled economy. 
• The Government of India visions to see the most secluded, inaccessible village to be connected by high-speed internet and broadband facilities. This will help in bridging the digital divide between rural and urban areas. This will help in achieving social inclusion and financial inclusion of the rural areas. This also ensures that there is uniformity in the services provided to urban and rural areas. 
• e-Basta: To be consistent with the Government’s Digital India initiative, this project has been created to make school books approachable, easy-to-use and user-friendly. e-Basta books are available in digital format. E-Bastas can be read and used on tablets and laptops. The main idea is to bring various publishers and schools together on the same stand. The participants of the eBasta framework are publishers, schools, teachers and students. The e-Basta app can be easily downloaded by the students from all over the world. The contents required are selected by the schools and teachers. The publishers upload and manage content in the portal. 
• E-Pathshala: It is an app developed by NCERT. This app is house for different kinds of quality textbooks, audios and videos. It addresses a wide audience and also helps in bridging the digital divide between urban and rural areas. It has variety of accessibility options. It can accessed through mobiles (android or IOS) or through web platforms on laptops or desktops. 
• Shaala Siddhi: It is a platform initiated by National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration. It aims at evaluating the schools to achieve the goal of sustainable improvement. They can also take sensible decisions for achieving their goals by comparing their performance with the criteria specified by the Schools Standards and Evaluation Framework. 
• e-Education: Digital India aims to connect all the schools in India through Wi-Fi and broadband facilities. This again ensures that all the schools, be it in urban or rural, are able to access the state of art facilities. Digital India would enable inclusive growth by providing access to better educational facilities. People who had to quit school education can make use of online educational facilities like Swayam. This would in turn increase the literacy rate in India. Digital Tools Used and Impact of Learning Outcomes in the Indian Schools. 
• Primary and Secondary schools across the country appear to be more advanced in the adoption of technology. Teachers in primary schools use smart boards and LCD screens to teach concepts in Mathematics, Science, and English Grammar. 
• Schools across the country are using technology seamlessly to engage with students and achieve desired results through well-planned learning methods. 
• Most schools utilize digital tools such as smart boards, LCD screens, audio-visual videos, digital recordings of older lectures and so on to teach children difficult as well as easy concepts. 
• Moreover, the role of a teacher has always been to impart knowledge to students and become facilitators using digital tools. 
• However, many school heads concur that these technologies will never replace the physical presence of a teacher, instead complement the entire teaching process. 
• In India, most of the school’s teachers are conducting ‘Smart Classes for 6-12th standard and teachers have been trained with the software to use it for main subjects (Maths, Science, History and Geography). The teachers are using it extensively in all the classes; and they plan ahead. The schools will soon be a place where the students will learn to study on their own with the help of computers while the teacher being a mere facilitator. 
• For a Digital India to succeed in impacting education, it needs a vision and mission to integrate technology as an important part of our large and complex school system. It must have a targeted approach to improve education through digitalization and by providing better teachers and with a comprehensive vision to provide benefit to a large extent of children. 
• Some of the techniques that can be incorporated in schools-Introduce benefits of technology in education–The very basic thing is to teach children how to incorporate technology with their education, to gain benefit and to use it as a tool to compete with the ever-growing world. This is mainly required in rural areas where children are very far away from this piece of knowledge. E learning apps– After this some innovative tools can be introduced for providing notes, books, resolving queries of student, practicing question etc. 
• There are 100’s of app and software available for students to learn. Smart schools Government should try to incorporate technology from the ground level that is school, more smart school should be open, public schools must be digitalized, classes must be provided to teach student and teachers about the benefits of digital world and everybody must have basic computer proficiency. Smart tools-Schools should be digitalized and must use smart tool to provide education to students like smart board, visual/audio education, school management software for management of school data.

Conclusion
As the access to internet in India has increased over the years and still rising due to the Bharat Net program, there should be more convergence between traditional and digital education. To achieve the highest potential, the digital divide must be narrowed down further.
The digital platform has been the sole medium in the testing time of Covid-19 pandemic which indicates the success of the Digital India Mission. In the coming future one can expect the rise in investment in edutech startups in digital education that can take India to better position of growth and development.

Topics covered - Digitalisation, Digital Divide, Digital Ecosystems