The current K-12 school system in India is one of the largest in the world, with over 1.5 million schools and more than 250 million students. With this enormous army of students at hand, the education industry is trying its best to accomplish the 3 missions that may very well change the course of Indian education – Make In India, Start-Up India and Digital India.
Last month, the Lok Sabha asked a series of questions to The Human Resource Development Ministry, in regards with the status of “Smart schools” in India. In reply to which, the MHRD has allotted funds to digitize 88,000+ government and government aided schools pan India.
The move, made under the Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan is aimed at enabling schools with smart learning solutions and building their Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure. ICT was launched in 2004, to bridge the digital divide in learning amongst students of various socioeconomic and geographical background.
As a part of this initiative, schools are to receive financial assistance for capital expenditure as well as recurring costs, including software such as learning management systems & curriculum based courseware. Apart from this central government initiative, several state governments have also started digitizing government schools in collaboration with private edtech companies.
With successful growth of digital classrooms, government should now start helping students make informed decisions in regards with their career. Since, the schools already have the technological infrastructure, the easiest method would be implementing a digital career guidance systems that would not only provide students with counsellors but also give them access to automated research tools that can help students conduct secondary research.
To further dissipate the digital divide, students from government and aided schools should be able to connect with Indian and International universities and explore their career opportunities. Giving students an equal opportunity would mitigate the glaring gap that exists between private and government schools.