India has 540 million citizens who are under the age of 25. According to IMF(International Monetary Fund), this could help the country gain 2% of GDP growth. But the main conundrum is that India has only 604 universities, and about 4000 colleges only, less than 50% of what it needs to achieve its target of a 30% gross enrolment rate in higher education by 2020.
“Indian cannot build enough brick and mortar universities to meet the exploding demand for higher education from millions of its youth and must rely on Digital technology instead”-Kapil Sibal, Former Telecom Minister of India.
In this digitalized world, the digital education has been a boon to the education system
of India.
Digital education is now more of a rule than an exception due to the increased access to technology. No longer one need to have access to school, time or lot of money. All one needs is a good internet connection and a mobile phone. More than a billion people in India have mobile phones and across 200 million of them have internet connection. This has been a boon for the education system in the country. Digital education solves the pressing problems faced by the India’s education system today. You can take any course of your choice, learn at your own place and contact with the online experts with any queries you might have at a reasonable cost. Many of the websites give a valid certificate for the course taken up. This is surely a blessing for we students.
Almost every school in the country wants to be regarded as a technologically advanced school. Digital education has made this possible. It provides the same world-class education to every student irrespective of their background or financial condition. Teachers get to spend more time to actually work with their students,by automating mundane tasks like note making,lesson planning etc. This will shape the teacher-student relationship by offering better accessibility, distribution and formats of delivery.
It is only through technology that we can solve the three core issues of the education sector—access to quality education, effective learning and personalization—at scale. In addition, tech-enabled learning offers scope for instant interactivity, further opening up the route for quality learning for students irrespective of their geographical location. The use of technology has already shown some early signs of the traditional classroom teaching model being transformed into digital learning programmes that are highly self-driven and backed by active learning.
There are multiple benefits of digital learning in transforming a child’s life like: Motor Skills, Decision Making, Visual Learning, Cultural Awareness, Improved Academic Performance, Inventiveness etc. Students use internet to do research and find proper text notes,videos and presentations related to anything of their choice. Also there are so many websites that have competitions that helps in imparting knowledge and intellectual learning. Not only this, children in rural areas can benefit from the digital learning. Affordable high-speed internet and direct-to-device technologies are empowering rural students to get quality resources and education, anywhere and anytime. Digital education will help in making India an egalitarian society.
Digital Future of Indian Education
The recent market research report shows digital education in India to grow at a CAGR of more than 20% during the forecast period of 2016 to 2020. With time, we will see a host of innovative tech-powered learning products being launched in India. This will empower and promote better learning experiences right from the formative years. With the rising demand of Digital Education, many companies are emerging to ensure that there is a continuous supply. Today various start-ups have been started that provides free learning and education facilities for free of cost to each and everyone. With the advancement in technology, in no time, India will become digitally educated. Government is focusing on modern approach to education rather than the traditional approach. Various government initiatives and programmes have been launched and will continue to launch in the near future. The chalk and board method will be soon replaced by the visual learning method.
“I dream of a digital India where quality education reaches the most inaccessible corners driven by digital learning.-Shri Narendra Modi. In no time, digital learning will seep considerably and will have a far reaching impact towards educating the vast population of India. This could well be the answer we all have been looking for!
The biggest enemy of digital education is slow net. Even the highest speed of internet in India is not at par with many countries developed in this field. Although, situation is improving now. RailTel (wifi at railway stations) is an example of this.