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Central Government, Education

Mobile education launched in India

By Amelia Kwok | 7 November 2008

In line with its “Education anywhere and anytime” vision, the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) will soon impart student courses on public health, art, music and various other subjects through mobile phones.

The IGNOU was established by an Act of Parliament in 1985. Today, it serves about 1.8 million students in India and 32 countries abroad through 21 Schools of Studies and an elaborate network of 58 Regional centres, 1804 study centres, and 49 overseas centres.

“Looking at the mobile phone penetration in our country, we thought of using the medium to impart education. Its called M-education,” said V.N. Rajasekharan Pillai, vice chancellor IGNOU.

“Education and technology cannot be seen separately. Taking education, especially vocational education, to rural India will soon become easier through mobile handsets,” added Pillai.

IGNOU believes in imparting quality education to the masses. These easily accessible modules would be implemented in collaboration with the Communication and Manufacturing Association of India (CMAI).

“The courses will be offered through text, video and graphics mode. We will start by imparting education on music, dance, art and crafts. We are sure people will latch on to it,” said Pillai.

IGNOU would also provide public health courses on nutrition, public health, AIDS awareness, and many other educational contents. Furthermore, students do not have to pay anything extra for the new service.

Pillai said the central government will provide the wireless and broadband connection to all the colleges across the country. “Our programmes will become more popular and easy to access.”

“The 3G mobile technology is becoming popular in India and we will soon have mobile TV. These courses and this mode of education will be a huge hit. What we are going to start is a revolution in the Indian educational scene,” Pillai added.

“The mobile phone is a great leveller in society as far as dissemination of education is concerned. This will prove a new paradigm in imparting knowledge to far-flung areas in the country and assist in bridging the divide using wireless and mobile technology,” said CMAI chief N.K. Goyal.

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