C-DAC to Participate in the Maharashtra Government Initiative for IT     Education

C-DAC’s experience & expertise in the area of IT education has been sought to assist the Government of Maharashtra in its initiative to introduce IT for Higher & Technical Education. Prashant Gulalkari outlines the program details and C-DAC’s role in this context.

The Department of Higher and Technical Education, Government of Maharashtra, has initiated a program of action on the basis of the First Priority Report submitted by the Advisory Committee chaired by Professor Ram Takawale on the use of IT in Higher and Technical Education in Maharashtra State.

The educational philosophy underlying the program endeavors to -

• Employ distance education and open learning principles and approaches for promoting independent learning.
• Enable the existing colleges and institutions to fulfill their current roles with added convenience, efficiency and effectiveness through communication technology and networked resources.
• Evolve alternatives in open learning that would be appropriate to the emerging Information society.

This allows for transformation from the existing state of education to the new system of education.

Facts :Maharashtra is the third largest state in India having a literacy rate of 78%. It has 301 Engineering colleges and Polytechnics and 616 ITIs, with a total capacity of 1,57,997 students per year.

Goal :With a view to prepare graduates for the knowledge-based economy, champion the cause of life-long learning and stimulate the creation of world class resources through information technology, the new paradigm of education, appropriate for the 21st Century society would foster creativity, develop new skills and competencies, nurture new value systems, create relevance and development orientation, achieve economy and excellence in education and avoid the digital divide.

The IT literacy and functionality program has been implemented in several ITIs, Polytechnics and Colleges from December 2000. The programme will be implemented in Government institutions and subsequently in all the institutions under the jurisdiction of the Higher & Technical Education Department from the next academic year.

Since IT expertise for the establishment, operations and development of IT facilities is still a specialized area, it has been proposed to be implemented through a partnership with IT Training Providers (TP) who will offer the necessary facilities, services and IT training to students and teachers. The Directorate of Technical Education has empaneled C-DAC as one of the Training Provider

The IT programmes will include :

• An IT literacy course for every student for enabling him to study by using IT. The course leads to the Maharashtra State Certificate in Information Technology (MS-CIT).
• An IT functionality course for every teacher to teach and help students in their learning by using IT. The course leads to the Maharashtra State Advanced Certificate in Information Technology (MS-ACIT).

These IT enabled courses will be offered on the web, onCDs and through distributed classrooms.

The examination for these courses will be conducted and certificate given by the Maharashtra State Board of Technical Education (MSBTE). The examination will be on demand and online at the identified centres of MSBTE.

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