-Reshma Ravishanker

Giving a push to digital learning with the establishment of a Digital University and creating more digital content, the union budget has drawn welcome reactions from the education sector in this regard.

In her 92-minute budget presentation, union finance minister Nirmala Sitaraman said that a Digital University would be established that will work in collaboration with some of the top higher education institutions.

“A Digital University will be established to provide access to students across the country for world-class quality universal education with personalised learning experience at their doorsteps. This will be made available in different Indian languages and ICT formats. The University will be built on a networked hub-spoke model, with the hub building cutting-edge ICT expertise. The best public universities and institutions in the country will collaborate as a network of hub-spokes,” she said.

Among the other initiatives, high-quality e-content in all spoken languages will be developed for delivery via the internet, mobile phones, TV and radio through Digital Teachers, she said.

A competitive mechanism for the development of quality e-content by the teachers will be set up to empower and equip them with digital tools of teaching and facilitate better learning outcomes.

Nirmal Shah, co-founder of Countingwell, a dedicated maths learning app said, “We are glad to see the government’s focus on building digital tools and quality content for students. From the edtech industry perspective, it brings us into the mainstream, going beyond ‘had to have it because of Covid’. The impact and benefit of edtech to the education systems will gain greater visibility with schools and parents, and we expect that to give us great impetus.”

Chitra Ravi – Founder and Chief Executive Officer at Chrysalis, a research organization said, “The pandemic has completely altered the way of learning and has increased the pace of digital adoption in the education sector. As educators, we should realize Technology has opened up lots of possibilities to improve the quality of education. Tech can be used for the professional development of teachers and also get assessment insights from children. We can safely say that Technology has the potential to solve some of the traditional challenges and pandemic related challenges as well.”

Also read: FM announces Union Budget 2022: Highlights for education sector