National Digital Education Architecture (NDEAR)

Context:

Union Education Minister Shri Dharmendra Pradhan reviewed the Digital Education initiatives of the Ministry of Education including PM e-Vidya, National Digital Education Architecture (NDEAR), Swayam, among others.

About National Digital Education Architecture (NDEAR)

• Union Budget 2021-22 has announced setting up of a National Digital Educational Architecture (NDEAR) within the context of a Digital First Mindset.
• NDEAR is being envisioned to be a digital infrastructure for Education.
• Digital Architecture will support teaching and learning activities as well as educational planning, governance administrative activities of the Centre and the States/ Union Territories.
• It will provide education eco-system architecture for development of digital infrastructure, a federated but interoperable system that will ensure autonomy of all stakeholders, especially States and UTs.
• The institutional structure, governance framework, technology and data of NDEAR will benefit the entire student and teacher community.

India Report on Digital Education, 2020

• It was launched by the Ministry of HRD (now Education)
• The report elaborates on the innovative methods adopted by the Ministry of HRD, Education Departments of States and UTs for ensuring accessible and inclusive education to children at home and reducing learning gaps. 
• School Education is envisaged as a comprehensive and convergent programme committed to universalize digital education across the wide spectrum of schools from pre-nursery to higher secondary classes.
• As per the report, the quality digital education has acquired a new urgency in the present context of globalization

Digital Education

• Digital education is the innovative use of digital tools and technologies during teaching and learning and is often referred to as Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) or e-Learning.
  
  • Exploring the use of digital technologies gives educators the opportunity to design engaging learning opportunities in the courses they teach, and these can take the form of blended or fully online courses and programs.

Initiatives related to Digital Education

• DIKSHA platform
• Swayam Prabha TV Channel
• On Air – Shiksha Vani
• e-PathShala and telecast through TV channels

Challenges

There are a couple of roadblocks, the biggest one being access to a quality digital framework. Remote locations have bare minimum access to the digital network. Even some of the most populated metropolises consistently face issues with digital networks. In a post-pandemic world, ensuring nation-wide connectivity and quality equipment is a must. At the other end, for an overwhelming majority of the nation’s educationists and leaders, promising a solution so big is too open-ended to visualise.

The worldwide education improvement plan as per the Goal 4 (SDG4) of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, received by India in 2015, was to “guarantee comprehensive and impartial quality training and advance deep-rooted learning opportunities for all”. An objective so huge requires a strong, sturdy and well-established education framework to help and cultivate learning, with the goal that every one of the basic targets and objectives (SDGs) can be accomplished. Ensuring top-notch education to every individual in India is the only way to create and augment our rich gifts and assets to benefit the country, the public and the world. India will have the highest youth population in the following decade and our capacity to give top notch education will decide the fate of our country.

Way Forward

• A Multi-Pronged Approach: Flexible rescheduling the academic timetable and exploring options in collaboration with schools, teachers, and parents for providing access to education to a larger section of students.
  • Staggering teacher-student interactions in physical mode with not more than 50% of the total strength attending schools on alternate days.
  • Giving priority to the less advantaged students who do not have access to e-learning.
  • Genuine efforts must be invested to ensure every child gets good quality equitable education as a fundamental right.

• Making Online Education More Effective: Shorter but quality discussions rather than long hours of monotonous sitting and one-way communication, should be preferred.
  • The teacher’s role has to go beyond just being in control of the class to being a facilitator for the transfer of knowledge.

• Focussing more on Knowledge Aspect: Education is not about competence but more about motivation. The students are meant to discover not just cover the syllabus.
  • The system should not just heartlessly push the students and teachers in only finishing the course regardless of any gain of knowledge, stress should be upon quality learning and not quantity cramming.

Conclusion

‘Equality of Opportunity’ is one of the basic principles of the Indian Constitution. Shifting to a system that benefits only a section of people and leaves behind the neediest ruins the very notion of this statement.

Moreover, digital education is something where India is not successful yet. There is still a lot to do in terms of checking if students’ entitlements are not being compromised or in providing meaningful academic curriculum alternatives.

Source: PIB

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